Super2 talking points: Crunch time in return to Bathurst
For the second time this season, the rising stars of the Dunlop Series tackle Mount Panorama at what could be the defining round of the 2024 season.
Eggleston Motorsport's Kai Allen take a comfortable 126-point lead into the two races on Friday and Saturday at Mount Panorama, as he aims to clinch his second consecutive title.
However, a consistent Zach Bates is shaping as Allen's key series rival, having jumped Aaron Cameron off the back of his Sandown round win.
Cameron is by no means out of the title fight either, at 144 points behind Allen with 600 points on the line across the final four races of the season.
There are plenty of storylines to watch outside of the title fight this weekend at Bathurst. Supercars.com takes a look at some of the talking points heading into the penultimate round of the Dunlop Series.
The double duty challenge gets tougher
Four of the six Great Race rookies completed double duties at the Sandown 500 - namely Aaron Cameron, Cameron McLeod, Brad Vaughan, and Cooper Murray. This weekend McLeod and Murray will both be solely focusing on their Supercars duties at Triple Eight and PremiAir Racing respectively, leaving Cameron and Vaughan as the only Super2 drivers completing double duties this weekend on The Mountain. Both drivers impressed in the main game, with Vaughan completing a mega 90-lap stint in Matt Chahda's wildcard Camaro to consolidate their lead lap finish after claiming a long-awaited maiden Super2 victory in the curtain raiser. Cameron was rock solid alongside Aaron Love in the Sandown 500, though had a quiet weekend in Super2, and has dropped behind Zach Bates into third in the series standings. The challenge of double duties will only ramp up at the toughest track of the season in cars with very different characteristics. There will also be more driving for the Super2 drivers in the main game, with an extra 60-minute co-driver session on the Bathurst 1000 schedule compared to Sandown.
Has the pecking order changed since February?
The Dunlop Series finds itself in the unusual (but not unprecedented) scenario where they return to Bathurst for the second time in a single season, the last time having been 2021. As much as the weather conditions will be different in the middle of spring compared to the end of summer, this weekend will be the best opportunity to see who has progressed the most across the opening four rounds of the series. The established stars of the series - think your Kai Allen, Zach Bates, Aaron Cameron, and the like - can all be expected to be fighting at or towards the front, but it will be interesting to see if any of the rookie class can show their talents on the sport's biggest stage. Image Racing's Jarrod Hughes claimed his maiden pole position at Sandown, whilst Erebus stablemate Jobe Stewart impressed at Bathurst in Round 1 and was also quick at Sandown. Max Vidau could be another rookie to watch at Bathurst, the Anderson Motorsport driver sits fourth in the standings, and had a steady debut in February. Tickford's Rylan Gray was also impressive in his maiden Super2 starts at the Bathurst 500, finishing fourth and sixth in the two races.
Will Allen rediscover qualifying speed?
Although Kai Allen still holds a handy 126-point buffer over Zach Bates in his quest to become the first ever back-to-back Super2 champion, the 19-year-old will be eager to reverse a recent struggle in qualifying trim. Whilst his one lap pace has by no means been disastrous, Bates has started ahead of Allen in each of the past five races, and was able to claw back 27 points at Sandown. Races 4 and 5 in Perth and Townsville were near misses for Allen, who started back in 12th and 13th respectively, and was lucky to pick his way through a first lap pile up in Townsville, something Bates couldn't do cleanly after starting eighth. However, if there is a place Allen can snap his streak, it could very well be Mount Panorama, where he got his title defence off to a near-perfect start with a pole and two wins. The only driver between Allen and a perfect start was his own Eggleston Motorsport teammate Cooper Murray, who is not in the field this weekend. If Allen can recreate his start to the season, he'll take an enormous step towards rewriting history for the second time in as many seasons.
Can Bates continue to close the gap?
The Canberran is shaping up as the biggest threat to Kai Allen's quest for back-to-back Super2 titles, having jumped into second in the standings off the back of his Sandown round win. The Walkinshaw Andretti United youngster has more round wins than anyone else this season - claiming two round wins to Kai Allen and Jack Perkins both on one round win - and has also finished on the podium in six of the eight races this year, once again the best record in the field. If it wasn't for contact with Cooper Murray in Race 2 at the Bathurst 500, and becoming an innocent victim of the lap one chaos in Race 5 at Townsville, there's every chance that Bates would have a 100 percent podium strike rate this season, which could very easily have seen him neck and neck with Allen in the standings. This time 12 months ago, Bates got his maiden round podium in the Dunlop Series, and he has carried that momentum into 2024, taking up the mantle of Ryan Wood as WAU's Super2 leader. Whilst a promotion to the main game in 2025 appears highly unlikely, with Toyota entering Supercars in 2026, perhaps there's one eye on driving a Supra given the long-time family connection to the powerhouse brand, and Zach's own success in the Toyota GR Cup.
A new threat to Nissan's Super3 dominance
The Super3 field this weekend will be boosted by the addition of highly-touted former Erebus Academy driver Bailey Sweeny in an Image Racing VF Commodore. Sweeny takes over the Commodore Tony Auddino won the Sandown round with after Cody Burcher and Thomas Maxwell both struck dramas in the Sunday race. Although Sweeny hasn't done much racing this year, he has put together an impressive resume in TCR and Toyota GR Cup over recent seasons, and has tasted success at Mount Panorama in TCR. The 21-year-old won two races at Mount Panorama in the 2022 TCR Australia season, and was cruelly denied a series victory last year by mechanical gremlins at Bathurst, having been a standout in an older-generation Hyundai. Now the Batemans Bay product is looking to use this weekend as an audition to springboard into a full-time Super2 ride next season, and will be eager to impress on the big stage. Sweeny will no doubt be looking to mix it up with established Super3 runners Burcher and Maxwell in their MW Motorsport Nissan Altimas, with Dunlop Series rookie Burcher taking a 126-point lead over Maxwell into Bathurst.
