Dalton delivers back-to-back Super2 poles
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 13 July 2025
Lochie Dalton has done it again, backing up his Saturday success with another Super2 Townsville pole on Sunday morning.
It was another session dominated by Tickford, with Dalton’s 1:14.2912 beating Rylan Gray by a tenth.
Splitting the teammates was Bailey Sweeny, who shot to third ahead of another Tickford charger in Rueben Goodall.
Rounding out the top five as the leading Holden was Bradley Vaughan, ahead of the Image Racing teammates Jobe Stewart and Jarrod Hughes.
The Eggleston Motorsport Commodores were nowhere, with Zach Bates the leader down in 11th.
After a heavy crash and clean-up at Turn 2 in the Porsche Sprint Challenge race, there was a small delay to the start of Super2 qualifying.
This also meant the fast right-hander was a bit messy, and many drivers locked up as they negotiated the opening laps on used tyres.
Once again, Tickford was at the top of the timesheets with Gray leading the field after the banker laps with a 1:14.9583.
This was just enough to edge out teammate Dalton by 0.0107s as Walls was the best of the rest.
It was not until the final six minutes that the session came alive as drivers pushed hard on fresh rubber.
Hughes and Gomersall were the first to show their hand, rising to the top of the timesheets.
However, it was only a matter of time until Tickford responded and delivered the knockout blow.
Dalton and Gray bolted a full half a second on the field with the #6 again emerging on top with a 1:14.2912.
Brad Vaughan and Jobe Stewart found some speed to get into the top four, but there were soon displaced by Sweeney and Goodall to make it a wash of blue.
Sweeny pushed on and set a purple first sector, but could not improve.
McLeod made a late move to eighth, while the Eggleston Motorsport Commodores struggled, not getting inside the top 10.
Dalton aims to make it a perfect weekend in the second and final race at 13.35 AEST.
Super2 Race 2 Qualifying top five
1: L. Dalton 1:14.2912
2: R. Gray +0.1617
3: B. Sweeny +0.2280
4: R. Goodall +0.2807
5: B. Vaughan +0.3264
Image: DMAC Photography
2025 Townsville 500
FRIDAY 11th July
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