De Pasquale boasts more pole positions that any other driver on the Supercars grid this season - his #11 Shell V-Power Racing Mustang going from number one 11 times - and he's got another front row start in mind for the Mount.

Naturally the 26-year-old knows pole position does not ensure Great Race success, but it's still a spot De Pasquale would love to find himself in.

"Pole is always better than not, it doesn't necessarily win you the race, but it puts you in the right position to have a cleaner day," he said.

"So I'm definitely aiming for the top 10 shootout, that's probably our most fun session for the whole year because you get this place to yourself for a whole lap. But once that's over, it's all about the race and lap 161.

"You want to win, you want go full bore, it's a 1000 kilometre sprint race and everyone wants to win this race because if you don't win the championship, you want to win Bathurst."

De Pasquale has made three previous appearances in the Bathurst 1000 top 10 shootout while earlier in the year at the season-opening Bathurst 500, he also got to take part in a pair of one-lap flyers.

He qualified on the second row for each of the races that made up the Bathurst 500 round, then ended up with a DNF and fourth placing.

It was a mixed start to his tenure with Dick Johnson Racing, and though he still feels the same sort of pressure heading into the season finale as he did for the opener, De Pasquale also feels more settled. He's made 13 podium appearances for his new team - six of them victories - and he sits sixth in the championship.

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"The start of the year for me Bathurst is probably not the ideal track to come to in a fresh car, fresh team and working with new relationships, but now we're definitely in a lot better position than what we were at the start of the year," he said.

"I'm pretty excited to come back here and obviously understand the car a bit more now I've been working with the team for the whole year.

"The pressure is always the same, there's always self pressure, expect to win and want to win - that kind of stuff is just natural and I think everyone up and and down pit lane is the same.

"We've been improving all year, that was always the plan. We were never going to go right out of the box and win a race, that's unrealistic and sort of disrespectful to the competition.

"So we've gone through the process, building, building, building and since the break we've gone to Sydney which was good for the team as we were able to execute a lot of good races there. We've learned a lot and hopefully that transfers to here."

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In the opening practice session of the Bathurst 1000 round on Thursday morning, De Pasquale clocked a best lap of 2:05.7984 which ranked him 15th on the time sheet.

It was Tickford Racing star Cameron Waters who topped the session after peeling off a 2:05.0233 on his 17th lap with just under two minutes remaining. Chaz Mostert (2:05.1075) ranked second in his Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore, while De Pasquale's team-mate Will Davison (2:05.1390) was third.

James Courtney (2:05.3685) and Mark Winterbottom (2:05.3981) rounded out the top five.

But practice was just the start, with qualifying to come Friday afternoon, the shootout on Saturday evening then Sunday's 161-lap epic.

With Red Bull Racing's Shane van Gisbergen having already sealed the championship title and Sunday's race the last of the season, De Pasquale knows the battle for a Bathurst podium will be intense.

But he's happy to be back at the Mount.

"We're pretty fortunate we get to be in Bathurst twice in one year and this year is a little bit different to most years because we've come from Sydney racing flat out straight to Bathurst," he said.

"There's a lot of cars than can win, so it's going to be a lot of work and you're going to have to have a clean day."

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