Bates claims red flag marred race, McLeod okay after roll

Zach Bates has won his first Super2 round after a short, but dramatic final race in Perth marred by two red flags, including a horrible crash for Cameron McLeod.

Although Brad Vaughan fronted the field, a 5s penalty for a jump start saw the Tickford driver slip to fourth.

On what would become a wild final lap, Bates was able to sneak past Max Vidau to take the race and round win with Kai Allen ninth on the road, but third in the round.

The race was shortened to just 13 laps and was significantly disrupted by two red flags. The first was caused by a fire for the luckless Mason Kelly.

His Mustang caught alight and left a mess, causing many to spear off into the sand at Kolb Corner.

Once the track was cleaned up, a four-minute sprint to the flag was expected, but only three quarters of a lap was possible.

McLeod and Cooper Murray were fighting for what would become fourth coming out of Kolb Corner and the #92 tried to shut down the move from the Eggleston Motorsport driver on the inside at corner exit.

But as McLeod went to cover and move across, Murray had the slightest amount of overlap and contact was made.

It sent McLeod spinning to the infield in identical fashion to Scott Pye in 2013, but unlike 11 years ago, the Coke Commodore was sent into a horrific roll.

McLeod flipped three times before landing hard on its wheels, facing the wrong way just over the rise. Thankfully the third generation driver walked away from the scary incident.

Following the earlier stoppage, there was minimal time left and the race was called after just 13 laps.

On the provisional results McLeod stayed third ahead of the demoted Vaughan, Aaron Cameron and Murray.

Cody Burcher completed a Super3 sweep over Thomas Maxwell.

With a mixed up grid, excitement was high and Vaughan wasted pole position with a clear jump start, while behind him Bates, Vidau and McLeod went three wide into Turn 1.

The #92 PremiAir car was caught out on the outside but managed to keep Mason Kelly behind.

Further back in the pack Jobe Stewart made a well-executed aggressive lunge to steal 10th from Lochie Dalton, but Allen could not get past Hughes and stayed 13th.

Eggleston Motorsport teammate Cameron Crick was the biggest mover, rising four spots to 14th.

Before the second racing lap was completed the stewards had already imposed a 5s penalty on Vaughan for his jump start.

It was not until Lap 5 when Allen finally made his first move and passed rookie Hughes.

An early victim was Rylan Gray, who was forced to retire with a gearbox issue.

The race had been running pretty calmly for the first 12 minutes and 10 laps until it was turned on its head following some wretched luck for Mason Kelly.

Kelly was running a solid fifth until flames suddenly burst out of the front of the recently repaired #22 Kelly Racing Mustang. Fortunately the second generation racer was able to climb out of the smoky car.

The fire also left a mess on the track and a number of cars were slid off into the sand pit, including Hughes, Elliott Cleary, Campbell Logan and Dalton.

Due to a busy track clean up required, the red flag was waved with 21 minutes left on the clock, which kept counting down.

The field turned wheels again under the control of the Safety Car with seven minutes left, but one that took some time to re-fire was Hughes.

Vaughan led the field away with four minutes left on the clock, but the racing did not last an entire lap.

Cameron launched a move down the inside of McLeod at Kolb Corner, which left the #92 ZB Commodore vulnerable to those behind.

Murray tried to follow through on the inside, but McLeod attempted to shut it down as they approached the hump down the straight.

There was enough of an overlap that Murray made contact and sent the Coke Commodore into a spin.

In scenes reminiscent of Pye 2013, McLeod spun out of control in the infield, but this time the car dug in and was pitched into a horrifying roll.

Following the shortened race, Bates emerged with the round win, 39 points ahead of Murray and Allen.

But the reigning champion has retained a 54-point lead in the Super2 championship over Cameron with the next round in July at Townsville.

Image: Fox Sports

Dunlop Series Perth race 2 results

2024 Perth Supersprint (AEST)

Friday, May 17

Practice 1: 1: C. Mostert 55.0930 2: N. Percat +0.1753 3: J. Courtney +0.1779

Saturday, May 18

Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 54.9036 2: C. Waters +0.0190 3: T. Randle +0.0739

Qualifying 1: C. Mostert 54.5628 2: R. Wood +0.1411 3: C. Waters +0.1759

Race 9: 1: C. Mostert 2: W. Brown 3: C. Waters

Sunday, May 19

Practice 3: 11.40

Qualifying: 14.00

Race 10: 17.45 (55 laps)

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Podcast: Supercars Perth and F1 Imola preview

On this week’s show, Andrew, Bruce and PG rejoice at the return of Supercars after what feels like and eternity, but is only four weeks. We preview the Perth round in this week’s Auto Action RevLimiter.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here