Vaughan pips Murray to Sandown Super2 win

The Tickford Racing driver controlled proceedings from start to finish in a frenetic half-hour race punctuated by two Safety Car periods.

From pole position, Vaughan got the hole shot into Turn 1 and behind him there was chaos as second place starter Jarrod Hughes went deep into the first corner.

Hughes took Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Campbell Logan with him and that gifted Eggleston Motorsport’s Cooper Murray second place while Zach Bates moved up to third in the other WAU Holden ZB Commodore.

PremiAir Racing’s Cameron McLeod had his first off-road excursion on Lap 1 at Turn 2 and then went through the mud with Max Vidau at the penultimate turn too.

Brad Jones Racing’s Elliott Cleary took evasive action as McLeod and Vidau returned to the track. In doing so, he slid through the grass and hit the wall.

Bogged in the wet grass, the Safety Car was called to recover the stationary car.

Vaughan led Cooper Murray at the time of the full course caution ahead of Zach Bates, Kai Allen, and Saturday’s race winner Jobe Stewart.

After the race restarted, Cody Burcher threatened to bring the Safety Car out again when he slapped the wall out of Turn 3 thanks to a hit from Cody Gillis.

Burcher returned his Nissan Altima to the pit lane with right rear damage.

Vidau’s day went from bad to worse when he copped a whack from Tickford Racing young gun Rylan Gray and sent him into the Dandenong Road gravel trap.

Super3 Series driver Thomas Maxwell suffered a puncture when Reuben Goodall climbed over the left front of the Nissan Altima.

Goodall suffered race-ending damage to the #20 and retired to the pit lane after seven laps.

The yellow was drawn when the #116 Holden ZB Commodore of Aaron Shields slid off into the gravel trap at Turn 9.

After a brief Safety Car intervention, Vaughan led Murray and Bates to the green flag with a little over 13 minutes remaining.

Murray threatened to pass Vaughan for the lead with seven and a half minutes remaining but couldn’t find a way through.

Ultimately, that would be all that Murray could offer in the way of attack. Vaughan came home 0.8s ahead of Murray while Bates was third and 2.7s away. Stewart and Allen completed the top five.

Results: Penrite Oil Sandown 500 Super2 Series (Race 2)