Aaron Love has won this evening’s Super2 Bathurst opener, topping title contenders Zak Best and Kai Allen, who pull away at the top of the standings after third-placed Ryan Wood and fourth-placed Cooper Murray failed to finish.
Having qualified on the second row, Wood’s race lasted until the exit of Turn 1, with side-on contact with front-row starter Allen damaging Wood’s right front, forcing him to limp around the entire 6.213-kilometre circuit to retire at the end of the opening lap.
Wood took good speed through to the entry of Mountain Straight but was quickly swallowed up by the pack, with Cameron McLeod coming together with Zane Morse at Turn 2 while avoiding the slower Commodore, the latter spinning across the track following contact with the outside wall.
Best led Love at the end of Lap 1, while Jay Hanson, Allen and Cooper Murray battled it out for third.
An error from Best resulted in him running off the track at The Chase on Lap 4 and resulted in Love taking the lead, a position he would hold until the end of the race.
Hanson crashed out at the top of the mountain on Lap 8, elevating Murray to third, only for him to come into grief at Griffin’s Bend on the penultimate lap from a tyre failure, bringing out the Safety Car for the final full circuit of the mountain.
Murray’s misfortune was Allen’s gain; the front-row starter elevated to the podium after a slow start to the race.
The Dunlop Series returns for one further run tomorrow, with qualifying at 10.55 am (NZ time) and the race at 5.55 pm.
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