Chaz Mostert wins opening Dunlop Series race

Ford Performance Racing’s Chaz Mostert has taken his first Dunlop Series race victory by dominating the season opener on the streets of Adelaide.

Mostert led from start to finish, crossing the line 8.1s clear of second placed Scott McLaughlin after just 14 laps of racing.

Nick Percat took third after dropping behind fellow second row starter Scott Pye off the start. The Walkinshaw Racing driver remained tucked in behind the Triple Eight Commodore until Lap 13, when Percat nudged Pye wide at Turn 6.

Tim Blanchard also used the opportunity to sneak past Pye, but would eventually find the Turn 8 wall while trying to keep pace with Percat.

An impressive Ash Walsh eventually took fourth ahead of Pye, while Luke Youlden, Geoff Emery, Rodney Jane, David Russell and George Miedecke rounded out the top 10.

Russell’s ninth place finish came despite a late-race spin, which occurred while the Dreamtime Racing driver had been attempting to take fourth from Walsh at Turn 9.

Cameron Waters fared even worse than his team-mate, with the reigning Formula Ford Champion failing to finish after hitting the Turn 8 wall while running 11th.

The first four laps of the race had been run under Safety Car after a collision between Aaren Russell and Daniel Jilesen saw the latter dispatched into the wall on the right hand side of the circuit under the Clipsal bridge.

Russell had been trying to avoid his slow-starting Drew Russell at the time of the contact, and was later penalised for the incident which caused major damage to Jilesen’s Falcon.

While there were no further Safety Car periods, the race was called five laps short of its scheduled 23 laps after reaching its 30 minute maximum duration.

See below for the full Race 1 result