Gray takes big step towards Super2 title with Bathurst victory

Rylan Gray has taken a big step towards clinching the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series on the streets of Adelaide, claiming Round 5 at the Repco Bathurst 1000 with a clinical Race 2 win.

Gray benefitted from a mistake for teammate and title rival Nash Morris, and didn't put a foot wrong to claim his third race win of the season by 1.3372s.

Having entered the weekend with a 117-point lead over Lochie Dalton, that gap has provisionally extended to 147 points with 300 on the line in Adelaide. If he finishes ahead of Dalton in the Adelaide opener, he will clinch the series with a race in hand.

Polesitter Dalton slipped to third in the final race of the weekend, but claimed second for the round, whilst Morris rounded out the podium in another Tickford lockout.

All the attention was on Dalton and Gray off the front row at the start, however it was Tickford teammate Nash Morris who got a phenomenal start from third on the grid, splitting the front row to launch into the lead.

Whilst the three lead Tickford Fords squabbled up Mountain Straight, absolute mayhem broke out behind at Hell Corner, leading to the first Safety Car intervention of the weekend.

The Hell Corner melee started when Zach Bates edged across the front of Bailey Sweeny's Mustang in the braking zone, almost getting turned before being straightened out by Eggleston teammate Cody Burcher.

That saw Sweeny go wide at the first corner, and when he tried to merge back into traffic, Cody Gillis got sandwiched between the #33 and Jackson Walls, with all three being launched into the outside tyre wall.

Jarrod Hughes then piled into the recovering Burcher, before swerving into the path of Ayrton Hodson. The Kiwi then collected Hughes' Image Racing stablemate Max Geoghegan, who was launched into the air as a result.

Gillis was out on the spot, Sweeny, Burcher limped back to the pits and into retirement, whilst Hughes, Geoghegan, and Hodson also returned to the pits with damage.

The race restarted with 21 and a half minutes to go, with Morris leading Gray, Dalton, Brad Vaughan, and Reuben Goodall.

Goodall immediately applied the blowtorch to the back of Vaughan's Brad Jones Racing Commodore, with the likes of Jobe Stewart and Campbell Logan also lurking.

Morris then made a critical unforced error pinching an inside front at The Chase, giving series leader Gray the free kick he needed to gain the lead for the first time all weekend.

Gray then set about breaking the chase of Morris, setting the fastest lap of the race with the clean air, whilst Dalton also set about trying to catch Morris, setting purple sectors on the third lap after green.

Vaughan continued to back up the pack as he fought valiantly to hold on to fourth, whilst the bottled up pack then started to squabble amongst themselves, Logan moving by Stewart into sixth.

The Goodall/Vaughan duel raged on right until the final lap, with the pair making light contact on the final run through Hell Corner.

Vaughan managed to just hold off Goodall by 0.1383s, with the top 10 rounded out by Logan, Stewart, Bates, Cameron McLeod, and Jonathon Webb.

The final round of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will be held at the bp Adelaide Grand Final from November 27-30.