Tickford takes 1-2-3-4 sweep in Super2 opener

Dalton controlled the 40-minute race from pole to lead home Reuben Goodall by just under two seconds.

The result comes in Dalton’s fourth Super2 campaign and follows a recent wildcard appearance with Tickford in the Supercars Championship in Perth.

Goodall overtook Rylan Gray at Turn 3 on the opening lap, while Nash Morris jumped from sixth to fourth to make it a Tickford quartet at the front.

That’s the way they ran for the duration – Gray only momentarily breaking up the order with a Turn 2 dive on Goodall seven minutes from the end that was immediately reversed on exit.

Goodall then put his foot down to pull away from the series leader to finish 2.6s ahead, while Morris was another four seconds adrift in fourth.

The result marked the first time any team has scored a 1-2-3-4 finish in any tier of Supercars racing.

Commodore drivers Jackson Walls, Campbell Logan, Jobe Stewart, Jarrod Hughes, Matt Hillyer and Ben Gomersall filled the top 10 at the finish.

The Safety Car was called 15 minutes in when Cody Gillis attempted an overtake on Ayrton Hodson, only for side-to-side contact to put both cars into the outside tyre wall.

Almost 10 minutes of yellow was required while the cars were retrieved.

Brad Vaughan was the hard luck story after the restart. He was running eighth when a left-front lock-up into Turn 2 proved the beginning of a downward slide.

The Brad Jones Racing driver slowly fell through the field from there, eventually spearing down the Turn 3 escape road when the tyre cried enough while running 16th in the closing minutes.

He pitted for a replacement tyre and was classified 20th, ahead only of Gillis and two retirements – Hodson and Cam McLeod, who pulled off late with an apparent failure while sitting eighth.

The Super2 Series will return for qualifying and the second race of the weekend on Sunday.

Results: Dunlop Super2 Series, Townsville Race 1