Paul Dumbrell turned his pole position into a solid victory in race one of the Dunlop Super2 Series at the Clipsal 500, crossing the finish line 5.2 seconds ahead of Todd Hazelwood.

Jack Le Brocq, Macauley Jones and Shae Davies rounded out the top five, ahead of Richard Muscat, Andrew Jones and Bryce Fullwood – who came from the rear of the grid to finish eighth after challenging for seventh in an older-spec car.

Jack Perkins was ninth while Will Brown rounded out the top ten on debut, with reigning champion Garry Jacobson enduring a difficult race to finish in 11^th position.

Jacobson’s race was marred not only by apparent mechanical issues, especially in the final stages of the race, but also by a number of instances of contact during battles for position with, amongst others, Andrew Jones – including on lap 17 when Jones contacted the back of Jacobson, leaving Fullwood to narrowly avoid while Jacobson worked hard to recover control and rejoin the race.

A number of cars were forced to the pits for help with loose bodywork across the 19 lap race, including Nathan Morcom, Kurt Kostecki and Anton de Pasquale – who arguably holds the rights to the biggest heartbreak of the race.

de Pasquale was running in second position early and looking very fast before contact with the wall saw him forced to the pit lane with his rear wing hanging off the car at the end of lap seven. He would not return to the race.

“I am not sure what happened, maybe I was a bit offline, maybe going a bit quick, I don’t know, but I hit the wall and dragged the whole wing off,” de Pasquale said.

“It was probably a bit of a ‘bad spot, bad time’ kind of thing. Before that it was really good, we were sort of matching PD up front and holding off the guys behind so we were pretty happy.

“I am not sure what went wrong but I think I must have just hit it in the worst possible spot – so a bit of bad luck maybe but ultimately probably my fault too.”

The Dunlop Super2 Series returns to the track tomorrow at 11:15 for its second race of the weekend, before Sunday hosts its third and final race of the weekend at 11:25.

Results: Race 1, Round 1, Adelaide