Dalton and Gray lead another Tickford lock out
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 12 July 2025
Tickford remains the gold standard of Super2 by locking out the top three grid positions in the Townsville opener with Lochie Dalton leading the charge.
A late red flag added a challenge to the 20-minute session, but Dalton’s 1:14.5849 was just enough to sneak ahead of teammate Rylan Gray by a slender 0.0621s.
Reuben Goodall made it a Tickford top three with Campbell Logan and Jobe Stewart the best of the rest.
Dalton’s performance makes it five different pole sitters from five races so far in 2025.
Gray resumed Tickford’s domination by shooting straight to the top of 1:15.5800.
During the early minutes it was only Geoghegan, who also recorded a 1m15s time.
However, Dalton was the first to fly into the 1m14s threshold despite a slide coming out of Turn 13.
His 1:14.8024 was so fast it stood for the majority of the session.
Gray slipped to seventh after not improving his second lap, but did just on his third and joined Dalton in the 1m14s club.
He was still 0.1949s away from the lead, but the teammates were a cut above the rest with the next best Logan a distant four tenths back
Goodall soon joined the party and split the lead pair to make it an all-Tickford top three.
Fresh from Le Mans, McLeod hurt his opening run by locking up and running wide at Turn 2.
It was not until the final six minutes when the session heated up again with Tickford and Eggleston having an intense battle for track position.
Stewart mustered enough speed to snap the Tickford stranglehold by flying up to third.
Gray was also lighting it up and set a purple second sector, only to get distracted by Ryan Tomsett locking up at the hairpin.
However, this still did not stop the youngster from snatching top spot.
But the #55 was not there for long as Dalton immediately responded by sneaking 0.0621s clear.
All this took place just before the reds were waved with 3m37s left on the clock when it became apparent Tomsett could not leave the escape road with a jammed throttle.
This created a narrow, pressurised window at the death and many struggled to find time.
In the failed search of improvement, both McLeod and Walls found the limit by going off at Turns 3 and 6, respectively.
With no one moving up, Dalton was unchallenged and enjoyed pole.
The first Super2 race in Townsville is on 13.35 AEST.
Super2 qualifying
1: L. Dalton 1:14.5849
2: R. Gray +0.0621
3: R. Goodall +0.3130
4: C. Logan +0.3168
5: J. Stewart +0.3573
Image: DMAC Photography
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