For a moment or two, Brad Vaughan looked like he might not even make the qualifying session for the second race of the Dunlop Super2 Series’ fourth round. The starter motor on the Tickford Racing Ford Mustang failed and left it stranded on the pre-grid before it was ultimately rectified, and Vaughan went out and put it on pole.
“The stress levels were going through the roof, I just had to compose myself and focus on doing the lap,” said Vaughan.
Vaughan’s best lap was 1:08.935s, two tenths up on Race 1 winner Ryan Wood in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden Commodore ZB. Series leader Zak Best put in a late lap quickie to slot the Anderson Motorsport Mustang into third and pushed Aaron Love (Petronas Mustang) to the outside of the second row.
Zane Morse (Mustang) will start from fifth, with Kai Allen (ZB) alongside. Then followed a fleet of Holdens led by Cooper Murray from Zach Bates, Jordyn Sinni, Lochie Dalton, Jay Hanson, Nash Morris and Jack Perkins.
The latter was half a second off the pole time while the only one to strike trouble was Callum Walker, whose ZB suffered a power steering issue which restricted him to only four laps.
McLeod put the disappointment of a DNF in Race 1 on Saturday to take the Super3 pole position and 14th overall. On four-lap old tyres, McLeod’s best was a 1:09.547, four tenths up on Saturday’s qualifier.
“I was pretty bummed out about yesterday,” he said and confirmed the track was a lot grippier for Race 2 qualifying than on Saturday.
Nissan Altimas finished the session first and second with Kelly Racing’s Mason Kelly second-fastest, 0.14s away. In third was Saturday’s winner Jobe Stewart (Image Racing Holden Commodore VF), ahead of the Altimas piloted by Valentino Astuti, Ryan Gilroy and Jett Johnson.