Dalton delight

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 13 July 2025

It is Tickford and then daylight in Super2 as Lochie Dalton’s Townsville sweep led the team to a third straight podium sweep.

Dalton dominated from pole and controlled the 29-lap race from start to finish with teammates Rueben Goodall and Rylan Gray just over a second back.

After also sweeping the podium last start in Symmons Plains, Tickford took its speed to new heights, finishing a huge 22s clear of its nearest rival, Cameron McLeod.

Despite being bumped out of the way by Bailey Sweeny, a 5s penalty pushed the BRT driver back to sixth which ensured there was at least one Commodore in the top seven in the form of Jobe Stewart.

Having been racing in Super2 for three years, Dalton said the maiden round win and clean sweep meant a lot.

“I am full of relief,” Dalton said.

“It has been a long journey in Super2 so to I have to thank my family, Tickford and Andrew and the Walker family for sticking with me. I would not be anywhere without them.”

Dalton had a strong launch from pole and converted it into an early lead, whilst Gray again battled to off the line and lost second to Goodall for the second day in a row.

Stewart had the best start from the third row and sent it around the outside, trying to sail past all of the Tickford cars and managed to pick off Gray.

The field safely managed to get through the opening lap despite some close calls, especially between the Eggleston Commodores.

It took 10 minutes for Gray to launch and assault to reclaim a podium place.

The Tickford driver chose Turn 2 and dived down the inside of Stewart.

The Image Racing youngster offered a stern fight however, and threatened to perform the criss-cross, but Gray was privy to it.

These battles allowed the top two to pull away with Dalton in control by a second and Gray a further 3s adrift.

The pace of the Tickford Mustangs’ was so supreme in a flash the teammates were 10s upt eh road of the rest.

Stewart was leading this train as the sole Commodore in the top seven, but had McLeod breathing down his neck.

With Sweeny closing in, McLeod made his move on Lap 18, sneaking down the inside at the final corner cleanly.

Sweeny followed McLeod past at the same piece of track a lap later to make it an all-Ford top five.

Further back in the pack, a door-to-door contest between Kelly and Owen did not work out.

Both drivers veered off at Turn 5, which saw them skate through the grass at high speed and they were lucky to avoid the concrete and others.

With no Safety Car interruptions, some cars lost the war of attrition with Hobson, Geoghegan and Sinni all required to box.

The hardest hit was Sinni, who jumped out of the car after just 20 laps due to a missing fan belt.

Goodall managed to close Dalton’s lead to 1.3s, but could not quite get close enough to challenge for the lead.

But two other Fords battled it out for position across the closing laps in Sweeny and McLeod for best of the rest behind the Tickford teammates.

Sweeny caught the rear bumper of McLeod with three minutes to go and tried desperately to get some overlap across a thrilling Lap 27.

The pair went side by side through the fast Turn 10 and somehow survived before Sweeny dived down the inside at the hairpin, only for McLeod to perform the criss-cross.

The #92 third-generation driver thought he had the BRT rival covered by closing the inside line in the run down to the final corner.

However, Sweeny stayed under his rear bumper and nudged McLeod out of the way to aggressively steal fourth.

But the stewards did not believe it was clean and a 5s for a driving infringement dropped Sweeny down to sixth, promoting McLeod and Stewart.

Only three weeks lie ahead before the next Super2 round at Queensland Raceway on August 8-10.

1: L. Dalton 29 laps

2: R. Goodall +1.1156

3: R. Gray +1.8960

4: C. McLeod +23.1450

5: J. Stewart +26.0450

Image: DMAC Photography

2025 Townsville 500

FRIDAY 11th July

Practice 1: 1 Ryan Wood 1:13.6345 2 Broc Feeney +0.0783 3 Anton De Pasquale +0.1872

Practice 2: 1: Thomas Randle 1:13.0460 2: Broc Feeney +0.1079 3: Cameron Waters +0.1547

R20 Qualifying: 1 Brodie Kostecki 1:12.5354 2 Cameron Waters +0.0841 3 Will Davison +0.1913

Race 20: 1 Brodie Kostecki 44:30 2 Cameron Waters +4.3158 3 Anton De Pasquale +10.9205

SATURDAY 12th July

R21 Qualifying: 1 Matt Payne 1:12.6824 2 Will Brown +0.0378 3 James Courtney +0.2008

Shootout: 1 David Reynolds 2 Matt Payne +0.1059 3 Broc Feeney +0.1136

Race 21:1 Broc Feeney 1:37:14.6669 2 Chaz Mostert +6.4296 3 Matt Payne +8.1222

SUNDAY 13th July

R22 Qualifying: 1 Matt Payne 1:12.5262 2 Will Davison +0.1598 3 Thomas Randle +0.2326

12:05pm – 12:40pm: Top Ten Shootout, Race 22 (Fox/Seven)

3:00pm: Race 22 (70 laps/200kms)(Fox/Seven)

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