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Vaughan takes race one to keep title battle alive in Adelaide
The penultimate race of the season for the Dunlop Super3 Championship was won by Brad Vaughan over arch rival and points leader Kai Allen.
The result keeps the title battle well and truly alive heading into Sunday’s decider, 54 points splitting Allen and Vaughan with 150 up for grabs in Race 2.
Allen, in the Eggleston Motorsport JGI Holden Commodore VE, led from the start, while Vaughan (Anderson Motorsport Angaston Ford Falcon FG) cleared the Super2 backmarkers to be less than a second behind when a carve-up ahead would determine the result.
Two Commodore VFs (Aaron Seton and Cameron Crick) had contact at turn six which baulked Allen and allowed Vaughan to slip by.
Seton’s car gained airtime and came down immediately in front of Allen.
“I thought that car was going to come down on my bonnet,” Allen said. “Bit unlucky but we have a straight car.”
Vaughan was confident he had the pace to match Allen.
“I closed on him before the incident, and I was lucky to be on the inside and go past.”
Adam Wallis was third from the start, but the retro Valvoline-liveried Commodore tagged the wall out of turn eleven and pitted for repairs as the leader completed the first lap. That elevated Chris Smerdon (Irwin liveried Falcon FG) to fourth ahead of Jarred Danaher (FG).
Jim Pollicina stayed out of trouble in his Mocomm retro-Vodafone Commodore and secured the Super3 Cup for privateers and third overall by his fifth place.
Next was Ray Hislop (Nulon Falcon) when he leaked places to his rivals after the safety car when he ran wide to allow Super2 runners through.
After a spin at turn fourteen when sixth, Jason Gomersall (FG) recovered to finish ahead of Gary Collins (VE). When the safety car came out Shane Beikoff had his Falcon AU’s engine expire.
There would be another safety car a lap after the cars and debris were cleaned, again it involved Super2 cars, and resulted in the race declared after fourteen laps.