Perfect Perkins gets long-awaited win
Jack Perkins’ 11-year wait between Dunlop Series wins is over after he produced a perfect drive as chaos unfolded behind in Townsville.
BRT’s Perkins nailed it from pole and cruised to a commanding win in a dramatic race bookended by Safety Cars.
His last Super2 win was at Winton 2013 and according to Driver Database, it is his first win in any category since 2018 when he enjoyed success in National Sports Sedans.
Perkins was driving a Blanchard Racing Team Mustang wildcard draped in 1979 Peter Janson and Larry Perkins colours which was making its first race of 2024.
Having battled hard across a number of teams and categories since his Super2 debut all the way back in 2006, the son of Larry was holding back the tears as he celebrated with his young daughter.
At its height Perkins led by 6s as the consistent Aaron Cameron and Max Vidau completed an all Mustang podium, while Kai Allen limited his points loss by rising from 13th to fifth.
A major part of this was a massive first-lap crash between turns 2-3 where Jordyn Sinni, Cameron McLeod, Brad Vaughan, Cooper Murray and Campbell Logan were all wiped out.
The race ended under Safety Car due to Dean Fiore spearing off at Turn 3.
Super3 was taken by Cody Burcher, who secured an impressive ninth overall.
Starting on pole for the first time in Super2 in 11 years, Perkins nailed his start and shot clear of the field.
This would prove to be fortuitous as the squabble for second only completed two turns before madness took place.
Vaughan and Murray were leading the charge, but made contact going through the left-handed kink as they chased the same bit of road.
Vaughan appeared to be in front and tried to cover the Eggleston Commodore, but there was overlap and the Tickford Mustang was sent hard into the inside concrete.
Behind them a similar incident took place on the other side of the track with McLeod spearing into the outside fence.
Zach Bates, who had teammate Campbell Logan up his rear, hit McLeod, which sent the recently rebuilt PremiAir ZB Commodore hard into the concrete.
Jordyn Sinni was collateral damage with Bates also spearing into him side on, whilst Logan ended up in the rear of Murray.
The end result saw Sinni, McLeod, Vaughan, Murray and Logan all first lap retirements.
“It is gutting,” McLeod said, having suffered a barrel roll in the previous race at Wanneroo.
“I guess two cars in front of me just collided. Being a narrow track I backed off and tried to avoid them and hold positions but the bloke behind me did know where he was going so I copped a bit of a whack which spun me into the wall.
“The boys were up until 1am getting this car ready and it was mint. I could feel it but now we have to do all that work again. Where does it end really?
“It is not big damage so I think we can keep going (tomorrow).”
The big cleanup meant racing resumed with just 22 minutes left on the clock before the field had a chance to complete their first racing lap.
Perkins led the field away ahead of a damaged Bates, Cameron, Vidau and Grant, while Allen had jumped from 13th to 10th.
With big front end damage Bates had no answer for Cameron and Vidau who flew past before turn 2.
The WAU driver drifted outside the top 10 before the first lap was completed as Perkins cruised more than a second up the road.
Allen had a fierce battle with Matt Chahda for seventh with the latter making up a crazy 17 spots in one and a half laps thanks to the early drama.
It was a case of third time lucky for Allen, who finally outfoxed Chahda at Turn 2.
Crick and rookie Hughes were also in an intense fight for a spot in the top five, but it did not take long for Allen to join the party, pouncing on the Image Racing driver.
Two laps later the Eggleston Motorsport #1 applied the blowtorch on teammate Crick.
Despite having the rears locked coming into Turn 2, Allen was somehow able to regather the ZB Commodore and get the job done by Turn 3 to complete his charge into the top five.
A lap later Crick made a mistake at the heavy braking right hander which allowed Hughes to snatch sixth.
This brought Crick into the clutches of Chahda and they had a close call at Turn 5 and somehow survived.
Behind them Zane Morse and Cody Gillis were not so lucky with wheel to wheel contact sending the pink Mustang off at the final corner.
But there were no dramas for Perkins up front, who was cruising and built his lead to almost 6s before the race-ending Safety Car was called for Fiore who was deep into the turn 3 tyres after an unseen incident.
The Dunlop Series returns at 9.30 AEST Sunday morning for qualifying while a second race is at 13.15.
Image: DMAC Photography
Dunlop Series Townsville Race 1 results
Supercars Townsville 500 schedule
Friday, July 5
Practice 1: 1: C. Waters 1:13.9603 2: T. Randle +0.1206 3: W. Brown +0.2019
Practice 2: 1: C. Waters 1:13.8376 2: J. Le Brocq +0.0590 3: M. Winterbottom +0.2946
Saturday, July 6
10.15-10.30: Race 13 Qualifying
12.05-12.35: Top 10 Shootout
14.40-16.48: Race 13 88 laps
Sunday, July 7
10.05-10.20: Race 14 Qualifying
12.05-12.35: Top 10 Shootout
14.40-16.48: Race 13 88 laps
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