Mysterious drama cruels Vaughan in tough weekend for BJR

What shaped as a potential breakthrough weekend for Brad Jones Racing and Brad Vaughan in Round 3 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series in Townsville turned into a weekend of frustration.

The 21-year-old was the Friday fast man in practice, despite an awkward moment that saw a wheel depart the #80 Commodore as he exited pit lane in the second practice session of the day.

After qualifying ninth for Race 5 on Saturday, Vaughan was running solidly inside the top 10 until he suffered a huge lock-up at Turn 2 following a Safety Car restart.

The South Australian would slowly fall back through the field as he struggled with a damaged tyre, which ultimately failed entirely and forced him into the pits.

Vaughan was consigned to a lapped 20th, but recovered with a top 10 finish on Sunday to maintain a top 10 position in the standings ahead of what will be a busy run of events for the former Tickford junior.

Vaughan is set to contest the Supercars Enduro Cup alongside Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Camaro, with the 2019 Super2 champion making a late charge towards Finals, however Vaughan's run of events won't end at Bathurst.

"I'll be at the next five Supercars events in a row, including the Gold Coast, so that's good, I'm excited. Just going up to watch, it's the only event I haven't been to, so I'm going to go to that one," said Vaughan on Supercars' Cool Down Lap podcast.

"Started really good, we were fastest on Friday. Then we've just had braking dramas ever since, so something we didn't get on top of which is frustrating, because it was so promising."

The South Australian further expanded on social media, saying: "[I'm] driving the best of my career and nothing to show, we'll push on behind the scenes for QR next month."

On the other side of the garage, it was even more of a struggle for sophomore Cody Gillis, who found himself buried in the pack for the entirety of the weekend.

The 26-year-old came under fire from Kiwi Ayrton Hodson after the pair tangled on Saturday, however Gillis avoided any punishment for his role in the incident that brought out the only Safety Car intervention of the weekend.

Reflecting after finishing 15th in the final race of the weekend, Gillis said: “Made minor improvements today and got everything a little bit better but still wasn’t enough.

"Huge thanks to Tropic Petroleum and Dare Iced Coffee for the major support over the weekend. We’ll be looking to come back stronger in Ipswich.”

Round 4 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will be held at the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 from August 8-10. Tickets for the event are on sale now.