He had been looking to cover off Murray, only for a minor overlap to send his Coca-Cola Commodore off the road and into a slide that then turned into a roll when the car dug into the ground.
The race was red-flagged and never restarted, McLeod emerging unharmed but with a wrecked car and a missed opportunity of a third place, as leader Brad Vaughan was nursing a jump start penalty.
Reflecting on the incident, McLeod said “shit” on the track was a contributing factor, while also expressing frustration that Murray didn’t get out of the throttle.
“I had a bad run out [Turn] 5 just because of all the shit on the track and then going into [Turn] 6 Aaron [Cameron] got up the inside, which was fine,” he explained.
“Then coming out [of turn 6] I was on all the shit once again so I got a bad run out of there. Cooper was there, I knew he was there so I was moving over but personally I don’t think he had enough of an overlap to keep his foot in it and spin me around.
“Bit unfortunate, I think. It’s a bit shit but that’s racing and it’s going to happen sometimes in your career.
“I think we had good pace, it was just unlucky with all the shit on the track. But with the amount of laps left I was hoping I would have finished fourth, which would have been third with Vaughan’s penalty.”
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