Champion's drive secures Gray 2025 Super2 title

Rylan Gray is the champion elect of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series, wrapping up the title in Race 1 at the bp Adelaide Grand Final with a grand slam performance.

After starting from pole position, Gray led every lap, and also secured the fastest lap of the race to put an emphatic full stop on his championship run.

The teenager from the NSW Hunter Valley has only finished off the podium twice in 11 races this season, and hasn't qualified lower than fifth all season.

Gray has been rewarded for his outstanding campaign with a drive at Dick Johnson Racing for the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship.

“ We had a plan at the start of the year and to say we've achieved it is super amazing,” Gray said.

"Big thank you to all Tickford, everyone on my car and the team. And very cool to win sarvo as well.

“A big thanks to Mum and Dad. It’s very hard to get into this game, let alone win it. They've been my biggest supporters throughout the whole thing, and it's all thanks to them."

Gray got a perfect jump off the front row, as Brad Vaughan got a tardy start but was able to hold on to second as he covered aggressively into the Senna Chicane.

The series leader looked as though he would check out at the front of the pack, however Vaughan was able to close back up, and had Zach Bates in tow.

Max Geoghegan had a torrid opening to his race, tagging the wall at Turn 8 on the opening lap, before then making heavy duty contact with the concrete at Turn 7 on Lap 3, which saw him retire to the lane.

In the sister Kelly Racing-prepared Mustang, Cameron McLeod blew out a front right shock absorber for the second time in as many days at the second part of the Senna Chicane.

An identical issue also struck NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Jesse Love, who was forced into the pits on just the second lap. Although he returned to the track, he didn't complete enough laps to be classified.

After being boxed around in a frantic midfield battle, Cody Gillis made an error on Lap 5 when he clipped the inside armco at Turn 8 and cannoned into the outside concrete, inflicting huge damage on the #9 Brad Jones Racing Commodore.

Gillis climbed out unscathed, and radioed his crew immediately to report his condition, however the damage inflicted to the left side of the car was extensive.

The race was under the control of Safety Car for five laps, and when the race returned to green, Vaughan made his intentions well and truly clear.

The #80 BJR Commodore rattled on the rear bumper of the #55 Tickford Mustang at the restart, before Vaughan committed too hard into the Senna Chicane, and was launched skywards not once but twice.

Bates, the outgoing Super2 champion, pounced on the recovering Vaughan, diving down the inside of Vaughan at the first opportunity at Turn 4.

Bates then set about trying to chase down Gray at the head of the field, however the 19-year-old didn't flinch, and pencilled his name down as the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series champion.

Vaughan eventually found himself slipping back into an all-South Australian battle for third, but was unable to fend off a determined Reuben Goodall, who sliced down the inside on Lap 20.

That move proved a turning point in the fight for second, which is being fought out by Gray's three Tickford stablemates, namely Goodall, 2025 Boost Mobile Pole Award winner Lochie Dalton, and Nash Morris.

Dalton now holds a six point advantage over Goodall, who jumped Morris for second, with the second generation young gun a further 15 points behind Goodall heading into the final race of the year.

There was also a change in the rookie of the year standings, with Ben Gomersall rising to the top of the leaderboard with a top five finish, with his lead over Cody Burcher sitting at 105 points.

The final race of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series begins at 1:50pm local time/2:20pm AEDT.