Kiwi driver and pole-sitter Chris Pither finished third while defending V8 Supercars Dunlop Series Champion Paul Dumbrell earned his first victory since the season opening Clipsal 500 at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 ahead of points leader Cameron Waters.
After recording fifth yesterday, the two-time series and Bathurst 1000 winner was confident he could challenge the young Prodrive-backed competitor on the Townsville streets and proved the goods today by 2.6 seconds after 21 laps.
The win proves the Eggleston driver is up to the fight, after rounding up pole sitter Chris Pither off the start and passing Waters at turn two for the race lead.
There was plenty of action in the opening stages of the race, with a multi-car incident on lap one at turn six taking out Matt Chahda, Kurt Kostecki and Garry Jacobson and triggering the Safety Car.
Jesse Dixon was also involved and managed to fight on a lap down, though he had a spin later in the race.
Macauley Jones celebrated one year in the category here but ended the race by hitting the wall at turn five while running in the top 10 in his PAYCE-backed Commodore.
There were a number of battles for James Golding, whose Dragon ex-GRM Commodore was quick but smacked the wall on entry to the final turn. Fortunately he was able to continue racing and managed eighth.
Keeping it clean, pole man Pither finished third in the race, with Jack Le Brocq ad Todd Hazelwood top five.
Waters continues to lead the Championship, with a 145-point buffer and three rounds left to contest in 2015.
Pither is fourth on the points table -345 behind Waters while Ant Pedersen is seventh and Simon Evans 12th.
The next Dunlop Series event will be held at Queensland Raceway’s Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint next month.
A V8 Supercars practice session will be staged only for additional drivers at Ipswich, so a number of Dunlop Series contenders will do double duties. Dumbrell, Waters, Pither, Le Brocq and Taz Douglas are confirmed co-drivers for the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, with Macauley Jones likely to step back into Dale Wood’s Brad Jones Racing Commodore as he has throughout the season.
Race 2 results
1 Paul Dumbrell Eggleston Motorsport
2 Cameron Waters TEAM ENZED PRA
3 Chris Pither Icebreak Racing
4 Jack Le Brocq Thomas Steel
5 Todd Hazelwood iseek Racing
6 Simon Evans Super Black Racing
7 Paul Morris Paul Morris Motorsports
8 James Golding Gippsland Body Building GRM
9 Garry Jacobson Eggleston Motorsport
10 Taz Douglas THR Developments/SA Racing
11 Bryce Fullwood Middy’s Data & Electrical
12 Renee Gracie Fujitsu Racing
13 Dan Day Street Fighter Performance Upg
14 Adam Wallis Warrin Mining / Volvo CE
15 Aaron McGill Battery World Racing
16 Jesse Dixon Hayman Reese Racing
17 Josh Kean Alphabet / Wynns
18 Shae Davies Davbridge Constructions
DNF Ant Pedersen
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