Vaughan loses wheel, goes fastest in final practice

Brad Vaughan has ended Friday on top in the Dunlop Super2 Series at the NTI Townsville 500, but it wasn't smooth sailing for he or Brad Jones Racing.

Vaughan brought out the session's only red flag when a wheel parted company with the car as he rolled out of pit lane mid-session, one of two notable incidents during the 40-minute session.

The first incident of note for the weekend came just five minutes in when Matt Hillyer nosed his WAU Commodore into the tyres at Turn 3. The #25 was able to reverse out and returned to the pits with cosmetic damage to the left front corner.

Image Racing continued their strong Practice 1 form out of the gates, with morning pacesetter Jobe Stewart's Erebus-entered Commodore going to the top early on a 1:15.8040s, whilst Jarrod Hughes and Max Geoghegan were third and fourth.

The interloper was Eggleston Motorsport rookie Cody Burcher, who went second with a time just 0.093s behind Stewart, whilst fellow rookie Ayrton Hodson went to fifth in his Anderson Motorsport Mustang on a 1:16.2484s.

The red flags flew just prior to the halfway mark as Vaughan's left-rear wheel parted company with the #80 Commodore as he left the pit lane for a green tyre run.

The wheel rolled across the race track and bounced off the outside wall, with Jackson Walls taking evasive action, before coming to rest on the outside of Turn 1, whilst Vaughan stopped at pit exit.

About ten minutes were lost as both the wheel and car were retrieved, with the BJR crew putting another wheel on the car before pushing it backwards down pit lane.

There were several green tyre runs immediately following the red flag, with series leader Rylan Gray flying to the top on a 1:14.9985s, and Tickford teammate Reuben Goodall slotting in behind.

Gray went faster again on his second push lap with a 1:14.7100, whilst Lochie Dalton made it three Tickford Mustangs in the top three.

Nash Morris ensured a provisional Tickford lockout when he went to fourth, whilst Cameron McLeod dropped into fifth in the #92 Ryan McLeod Racing Cars/Kelly Racing entry.

Vaughan then recovered from his pit exit mishap to launch himself into first on a 1:14.6932s, and whilst Stewart improved to within a tenth and a half of the benchmark set by Vaughan to finish third behind Gray.

Dalton would finish fourth, ahead of Goodall, Geoghegan, Hughes, Morris, Burcher, and McLeod. Reigning champion Zach Bates was 11th, whilst Hillyer rounded out the 23-car field having returned to the track with his limited damage.

The Dunlop Super2 Series returns to the track tomorrow for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 9:25am AEST, before Race 5 of the season begins at 1:35pm AEST.