Triple Eight endure a difficult weekend at Round 2 of Dunlop Super2 Series
Jackson Walls claimed a best finish of sixth for the team on Sunday
Ben Gomersall falls back five places in the points standings to eighth
On a weekend where Red Bull Ampol Racing's Broc Feeney was 0.0550s away from a weekend sweep in the Repco Supercars Championship, the same could not be said for Triple Eight Race Engineering's Super2 rookies.
With Triple Eight's impeccable record of Supercars success at Symmons Plains, many thought that Jackson Walls and Ben Gomersall would be right in the hunt for Round 2 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series.
However, neither car claimed a top five finish across the weekend as both Commodores struggled for one lap pace in qualifying, with Walls' starting position of eighth on Sunday the team's best effort of the weekend.
The 22-year-old Sydneysider would progress to sixth in the race, his second top 10 finish of the weekend after progressing to a 10th place finish after starting 14th on Saturday.
However, the reigning Carrera Cup Junior Champion has said that it wasn't all bad after the second round of the season, where he maintained 10th in the points standings.
“That was a pretty rough weekend for us as a team. We qualified 14th on Saturday morning, then in the race, we got to 10th, and we had some really strong pace in the opening laps," said Walls.
"And then Sunday morning, we had a really good qualifying session in comparison to the rest of the weekend, starting eighth. We probably could have been a bit further up, but that's how it goes. "And then in the race, we had a really solid car and something to work with, allowing us to push forward. So, I ended up sixth, which is something to be happy about, but we still have a lot of work to go into Townsville. The aim is to replicate and improve for a better weekend than we've had this weekend. “There are a few things I'm happy with. There's a lot we can work on, and we need to work on. We came in quietly confident, and things didn't go to plan, but that didn't knock us back whatsoever.
"We just need to put our head down and work out what's going to be best for us to take to Townsville and go out there to try win some races.”
After claiming a round podium on his Super2 debut in Sydney, Tasmania was a reality check for Gomersall, who failed to register a top 15 start in either race.
Despite that, the #35 Commodore was one of the big movers on Saturday, gaining eight positions to charge from 17th to ninth, and finishing ahead of Walls despite a seven place disadvantage on the grid.
There would be no such comeback on Sunday however, with Gomersall only finishing 15th after starting a lowly 18th, and almost getting wiped out in an incident between Mason Kelly, Jobe Stewart, and Max Geoghegan.
Having only been 15 points off the series lead heading into Tasmania, the teenager fell back five places to eighth in the standings, and is now 117 points behind leader Rylan Gray.
“There's definitely some positives, definitely a lot of negatives as well. I think our qualifying pace this weekend just hasn't been there on a green tyre for whatever reason," said Gomersall. “We've just struggled immensely. So, we need to look into that, do some more digging. But the positives were for sure that race pace on both days was solid.
"I'm really happy with that. We raced smartly, made up spots, and we didn't do anything stupid. It keeps us still in a decent spot for the championship. “It’s certainly a bit of going back to the drawing board, see what we can do better. But, we can definitely take away that we've had solid race pace in every race so far this year.
"We've made up a lot of spots in the process as well. My racing smarts as well, but I'm fairly happy with the weekend overall.”
Round 3 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will be held at the NTI Townsville 500 from July 11-13.