Best beats Feeney in Super2 thriller

Zak Best has resisted Broc Feeney in a thrilling battle to take a career-first Dunlop Super2 race win, in Round 3 of the season at Townsville.

Best emerged in front after the opening corners of Race 2 but came under intense pressure from the series leader towards the end of the 21-lap encounter.

The Tickford Racing driver ultimately took the chequered flag just over a second ahead of the Feeney-driven Triple Eight Race Engineering entry, with MW Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda third.

Best (#78 FGX Falcon) and Feeney (#888 VF Commodore) shared the front row of the grid and ran side-by-side up Boundary Street on Lap 1, while Jayden Ojeda (#31 Nissan Altima) was aggressive from the second row.

It was almost three-wide through the Turn 1 kink, then actually was when Ojeda darted from outside to inside and went deep under brakes at Turn 2.

He fired past both of them as he ran long, but emerged second, behind pole-sitter Best and ahead of Feeney, as Jordan Boys (#49 Image Racing VF Commodore) settled into fourth.

When Ojeda arrived at Turn 2 next time around, he locked the rears and slithered wide, handing second spot back to Feeney.

Turn 2 was an action zone yet again on Lap 3 when Feeney dived down the inside of Best, but he could not pull up in time to make the pass stick.

Best gradually increased his margin and got as far as 1.3s up on Lap 11, before the tide started to turn.

Feeney caught him on Lap 16 and had a look under brakes at Turn 2 on Lap 17.

He showed the nose at Turn 11 on that same lap but Best was able to hang tough on the outside, which became the inside line for the Turn 13 hairpin that leads onto the main straight.

Both skated into Turn 2 on the rear brakes at the other end of Boundary Street before Best pulled clear again, with his margin at the end officially 1.0669s.

Feeney took round honours and continues to lead the series, albeit by a reduced, 51-point margin over the race winner.

Ojeda finished a lonely third while Boys was a late DNF after slowing to a crawl on Lap 19 and eventually parking on the grass just inside of pit entry.

Fourth instead went to Angelo Mouzouris (#6 VF Commodore) in the second Triple Eight entry after he managed to keep Jack Perkins (#88 VF Commodore) behind him in the early stages.

Perkins finished fifth, one position up on Eggleston Motorsport team-mate Matt McLean (#54 VF Commodore), with Aaron Seton (#30 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore) seventh.

Rounding out the top 10 were Josh Fife (#28 MWM Nissan Altima), Matt Chahda (#18 Matt Chahda Motorsport FGX Falcon), and Declan Fraser (#777 MWM Nissan Altima), while Tyler Everingham (#27 MWM Nissan Altima) finished 11th.

Blake Fardell (#77 Mr HDT VE Commodore) was officially the Super3 class winner in 15th outright after Nash Morris (#67 Flash Bush Motorsport FG Falcon) was handed a 15-second time penalty for a driving infringement.

Morris had tagged Jack Sipp through Turn 10 on Lap 8, resulting in the Eggleston Motorsport driver going on spectacular, smoky pirouette but somehow managing to keep the #38 VF Commodore off the walls.

Morris ended up 16th outright, while Super3 rival Michael Anderson was a non-finisher with broken steering on the #5 Anderson Motorsport FG Falcon.

It is not known where Super2’s next round will be, given there are not yet new dates for either of the Winton SuperSprint or Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

Results: Race 2

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Cls	Laps	Race time
1	78	Best Leisure Industries	Zak Best	Ford Falcon FG/X	S2	21	27:00.1088
2	888	Triple Eight Race Engineering	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:01.1757
3	31	Jayco / MWM	Jayden Ojeda	Nissan Altima	S2	21	27:04.2873
4	6	Triple Eight Race Engineering	Angelo Mouzouris	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:11.9619
5	88	Eggleston Motorsport	Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:16.4105
6	54	Eggleston Motorsport	Matthew McLean	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:17.1620
7	30	Matt Stone Racing	Aaron Seton	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:18.1178
8	28	Natural Gas and Water / MWM	Josh Fife	Nissan Altima	S2	21	27:20.3801
9	18	Adventure Kings	Matthew Chahda	Ford Falcon FG/X	S2	21	27:22.3244
10	777	Red Hot Couriers / MWM	Declan Fraser	Nissan Altima	S2	21	27:25.3677
11	27	Blue Ribbon Legal / MWM	Tyler Everingham	Nissan Altima	S2	21	27:27.5353
12	999	Rare Spares / Image Racing	Jaylyn Robotham	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:28.9980
13	11	Brema Group Racing	Zane Morse	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:29.4103
14	69	Dial Before You Dig	Jon McCorkindale	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	27:35.5275
15	77	Mr HDT Race Cars	Blake Fardell	Holden Commodore VE	CH	21	27:49.7789
16	67	Flash Bush Motorsport	Nash Morris	Ford Falcon FG	CH	21	27:58.8927
17	38	Eggleston Motorsport	Jack Sipp	Holden Commodore VF	S2	21	28:11.8576
18	61	Image Racing	Reef McCarthy	Ford Falcon FG	CH	21	28:19.8927
19	35	Unit Racing	Jason Gomersall	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	21	28:20.1941
20	39	Vectra Group	Chris Smerdon	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	20	27:13.0839
NC	49	Image Racing / Joss Group	Jordan Boys	Holden Commodore VF	S2	18	23:15.6364
NC	5	Anderson Motorsport	Michael Anderson	Ford Falcon FG	SC3	12	16:21.4578
NC	96	Collins Racing	Gary Collins	Holden Commodore VE2	SC3	3	4:42.3173

Series points: Super2

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Broc Feeney	828
2	Zak Best	777
3	Jayden Ojeda	741
4	Matthew Chahda	603
5	Matthew McLean	597
6	Tyler Everingham	546
7	Declan Fraser	516
8	Angelo Mouzouris	471
9	Jordan Boys	405
10	Jack Sipp	402
11	Jaylyn Robotham	351
12	Josh Fife	345
13	Zane Morse	300
14	Aaron Seton	290
15	Jon McCorkindale	282
16	Tim Blanchard	267
17	Jack Perkins	183
18	Bradley Neill	135

Series points: Super3

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Nash Morris	789
2	Reef McCarthy	747
3	Michael Anderson	678
4	Jason Gomersall	531
5	Blake Fardell	519
6	Brendan Strong	489
7	Chris Smerdon	324
8	Jon McCorkindale	288
9	Jim Pollicina	195
10	Steven Page	192
11	David Murphy	192
12	Ray Hislop	186
13	Tony Auddino	168
14	Gary Collins	84
15	Jason Foley	72