Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Clyde's Nicole Shields set the fastest qualifying time, finishing in of 4 minutes 04.679.
They qualified more than half a second faster than the US and more than two seconds faster than the highly fancied UK team.
Woolaston told Sky Sport she knew the track was fast "but to go out as fast as we did today is a pleasant surprise".
The previous national record, set last year, was smashed by 3.8 seconds, but the riders are looking to go even quicker tomorrow.
"We’ll have another team to race against, so we’ll be looking for a faster time and will be going for the world record," Botha said.
The Kiwis will race Italy just after midnight and if they advance to the gold and silver race it will happen around 5.20am tomorrow.
The Kiwi quartet of Aaron Gate, Tom Sexton, Keegan Hornblow and Campbell Stewart beat Belgium this morning but other results mean they will race France for fifth and sixth tomorrow.
