Bargwanna victorious again in Phillip Island V8TC Race 2

Anderson Motorsport’s Jude Bargwanna is two from two in Round 1 of the Kumho Tyre V8 Touring Car Series at the Phillip Island Shannons SpeedSeries event.

Bargwanna’s second Supercar race start was better than his first but it was still Jim Pollicina (VE Commodore) who got the jump and he led the field down to Doohan Corner.

It was at Doohan Corner on the second lap where Bargwanna got a run on the outside of the ex-Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Race Engineering machine and that gave him the line to make the pass at Southern Loop in his FG Falcon.

The third-generation driver wasted little time growing his margin to several seconds, while Jamie Tilley had jumped from sixth on the starting grid after a Race 1 tyre failure to be third by the end of the standing lap.

Tilley caught Pollicina on Lap 5, by which time they trailed the race leader by more than five seconds, but found stern resistance from the man in Car #7.

Pollicina was on the defensive and it allowed Ray Hislop to close in on them, which proved Tilley’s downfall on Lap 8.

Hislop locked the rears of the ex-Ford Performance Racing FG Falcon at Miller Corner (Turn 4), causing him to spin.

Tilley had the spatial awareness to open the steering and avoid being collected but that entailed heading for the grass and he was fourth once he got back onto the road, behind Antonio Molluso (FG Falcon).

Bargwanna had no such trouble, winning by 7.4186s after 10 laps, with Pollicina second and Molluso third, by a slim margin over Tilley.

Hislop finished fifth, from Tony Auddino (BF Falcon) and Peter Abood (VE Commodore).

Tony Evangelou, who was seen off the road at Miller Corner in his ex-FPR BA Falcon, was a DNF in the end.

Race 3 takes place this afternoon, live and ad-free on Stan Sport in Australia and on Speedcafe for international viewers.

Results: Race 2

Series points