Buckley led from the start and had an advantage of almost four seconds when the pit window opened. Through the course of the compulsory pitstops, Slade took over the Chev Camaro and increased the margin in the second half of the race.
Second across the finish line were Josh Webster and George Miedecke (Ford Mustang). Webster was seventh before the pit stops and Miedecke emerged second after them. However, they were short of the minimum time and penalised post-race.
The penalty relegated them to sixth and elevated Paul Morris and Brodie Kostecki (Mustang) to second. The latter passed Craig Lowndes (who took over the series leading Jarrod Hughes Camaro) just moments before the chequered flag came out.
Lachlan Evennett held second position for the first dozen laps before he was passed by Nathan Herne and then handed over the Mustang over to James Golding to finish fifth.
Second in the series, Ben Gomersall (Mustang), along with Aaron Seton were next across the line and ahead of Tom Davies who took over his Camaro from Herne.
They placed ahead of Josh Thomas/Todd Hazelwood, Diesel Thomas/Nash Morris, Blake Tracey/Brad Gartner, Tyler and Graham Cheney, and Brandon Madden/Scott Andriske.
The race went 32 laps and safety car free. Only two cars, the Ben Bargwanna/Clay Richards Mustang and the Brock Paine/Dan Jilesen Camaro failed to start due to earlier damage. In Lee Stibb’s Camaro, Josh Haynes charged to fifth within two laps but retired later with a broken exhaust.
After a DNF earlier and starting at the back, Jordan Cox progressed to inside the top 10 before he handed over to Mark Crutcher. The Mustang had a fire leaving their pit and the car, the newest at the meeting, was retired.
On Sunday there will be another sprint race (11:00am and 1:10pm) for each driver and a two-driver 45-minute enduro at 3:55pm.
The event will be livestreamed from 10:00am and will also be broadcast live on Fox Sports, Kayo and SBS from 1:00pm AEDT.
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