Feeney dominates Townsville Super2 opener

Broc Feeney has dominated Race 1 of Round 2 of the Dunlop Super2 Series at the NTI Townsville 500.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver got the jump from pole position and led MW Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda for all 21 laps around the Reid Park Street Circuit.

The official margin of victory was only 0.7326s but it had been almost seven seconds before the final two-and-a-bit laps were run under Safety Car.

Either way, Feeney is back into the lead of the series, by 12 points over Tickford Racing’s Zak Best, who finished fourth.

The #888 VF Commodore led the field to the Turn 1 kink for the first time, ahead of Ojeda (#31 Nissan Altima), Tim Blanchard (#88 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore), and Angelo Mouzouris (#6 Triple Eight VF Commodore).

Best (#78 FGX Falcon) and Aaron Seton (#30 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore) touched as the former made the pass for fifth exiting Turn 2, with the latter shuffled back to ninth by the time he got to the next braking zone.

Seton lost another position before the standing lap was out when Jordan Boys (#49 Image Racing VF Commodore) dived down the inside at Turn 11, as Feeney pulled six tenths clear at the front.

The race leader added another six tenths or so to his margin on each of the next two laps, and was 2.3s to the good after four laps.

Ojeda had more to worry about in his mirrors, the Sydneysider coming under early pressure from Blanchard, as did Mouzouris from Best in the battle for fourth.

Mouzouris plummeted to 18th outright, last of the 15 Super2 drivers, when he reportedly stopped on-track on Lap 9 and had to restart Car #6.

The drama meant that Boys’ pass on Zane Morse (#11 Zane Morse VF Commodore) at Turn 3 on Lap 10 was for seventh, as Feeney eased to four seconds clear.

Car #888 lost time when Feeney caught traffic on Lap 14, but Ojeda had even more trouble threading his way through the Super3 class backmarkers and was almost 5.5s behind by the end of Lap 15.

They were separated by 6.8s when a Safety Car was called on Lap 19 after Josh Fife had a lurid slide into the Turn 2 run-off area, pulling brake markers off the fence with his rear wing endplate and nudging Morse.

Although replays were inconclusive as to the root cause of the incident, Fife’s #28 MWM Nissan Altima was seen with damaged left-front suspension as he drove away from the scene.

Despite the Canberran getting mobile again, the race finished under Safety Car conditions, with a top four of Feeney, Ojeda, Blanchard, and then Best.

Matt Chahda (#18 Matt Chahda Motorsport FGX Falcon) hung on from Tyler Everingham (#27 MWM Nissan Altima) in the battle for fifth, ahead of Boys and Matt McLean (#54 Eggleston VF Commodore).

Seton ended up ninth, Declan Fraser (#777 MWM Nissan Altima) 10th, and Mouzouris 13th.

Michael Anderson (#5 Anderson Motorsport FG Falcon) took Super3 honours in 14th outright after an early dice with class rival Nash Morris (#67 Flash Bush Motorsport FG Falcon).

Morris claimed second in Super3 and 16th outright, one position up on Reef McCarthy (#61 Image FG Falcon), while Fife was not classified a finisher.

Qualifying for Race 2 starts tomorrow at 09:30 local time/AEST.

Results: Race 1

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Cls	Laps	Race time
1	888	Triple Eight Race Engineering	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:10.4067
2	31	Jayco / MWM	Jayden Ojeda	Nissan Altima	S2	21	28:11.1393
3	88	Eggleston Motorsport	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:11.6483
4	78	Best Leisure Industries	Zak Best	Ford Falcon FG/X	S2	21	28:12.2660
5	18	Adventure Kings	Matthew Chahda	Ford Falcon FG/X	S2	21	28:12.7304
6	27	Blue Ribbon Legal / MWM	Tyler Everingham	Nissan Altima	S2	21	28:13.4708
7	49	Joss Group / Image Racing	Jordan Boys	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:14.3646
8	54	Eggleston Motorsport	Matthew McLean	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:14.8656
9	30	Matt Stone Racing	Aaron Seton	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:16.4490
10	777	Red Hot Couriers / MWM	Declan Fraser	Nissan Altima	S2	21	28:17.3904
11	11	Brema Group Racing	Zane Morse	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:18.0295
12	69	Dial Before You Dig	Jon McCorkindale	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:20.4785
13	6	Triple Eight Race Engineering	Angelo Mouzouris	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:22.4166
14	5	Anderson Motorsport	Michael Anderson	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	21	28:23.0544
15	38	Eggleston Motorsport	Jack Sipp	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:24.7085
16	67	Flash Bush Motorsport	Nash Morris	Ford Falcon FG	CH	21	28:27.0275
17	61	Image Racing	Reef McCarthy	Ford Falcon FG	CH	21	28:29.1471
18	75	Linc Scaffolding	Brendan Strong	Holden Commodore VE	SC3	21	28:30.3184
19	39	Vectra Group	Chris Smerdon	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	20	28:15.2556
20	2	Page Bros Jayco	Steven Page	Holden Commodore VE2	SC3	20	28:17.0162
21	24	North West Recycling	David Murphy	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	20	28:18.9630
NC	28	Natural Gas and Water / MWM	Josh Fife	Nissan Altima	S2	17	22:00.9205
NC	77	Mr HDT Race Cars	Blake Fardell	Holden Commodore VE	CH	16	21:28.3738
NC	96	Collins Racing	Gary Collins	Holden Commodore VE2	SC3	10	29:11.4695
NC	35	Unit Racing	Jason Gomersall	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	7	9:34.3425

Series points: Super2

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Broc Feeney	390
2	Zak Best	378
3	Jayden Ojeda	345
4	Matthew Chahda	336
5	Matthew McLean	303
6	Angelo Mouzouris	288
7	Declan Fraser	264
8	Tyler Everingham	252
9	Jordan Boys	225
10	Aaron Seton	225
11	Jack Sipp	204
12	Jaylyn Robotham	198
13	Zane Morse	144
14	Bradley Neill	135
15	Tim Blanchard	129
16	Josh Fife	90
17	Jon McCorkindale	69