Logan claims shock win, Dalton throws podium away

Campbell Logan has claimed a shock first career win in the opening race for the DUNLOP Super2 Series at the betr Darwin Triple Crown.

Logan, who finished 14th in the standings last year in a Walkinshaw Commodore, saw off early pressure from series leader Lochie Dalton to romp home to a near-seven second win.

Dalton meanwhile was lucky to keep a hold of the points lead after making an unforced error on the penultimate lap, which would drop him off the podium, whilst nearest rival Brad Vaughan was mired in the back end of the top 10.

Logan flinched before the lights went out, however managed to pull the car up once again before getting a dream launch from his first front row start.

Polesitter Dalton, meanwhile, found himself under siege from his former Tickford teammates Reuben Goodall and Nash Morris as he bogged his #43 Blanchard Racing Team Ford down off the line.

Dalton protected the inside as Goodall attempted to stick tough around the outside of Turn 1, only to find himself helped off the road by teammate Morris, who was slapped with a 15 second penalty.

Amongst all the chaos, Holden runners Bayley Hall and Ayrton Hodson were big winners, Hall leaping from sixth to fourth, and Hodson flying from 10th to fifth.

Goodall the found himself in unfamiliar territory at the back of the field, and any chance of a fightback took a big hit when he was spun by Bradi Owen after launching a big move down the inside of Turn 5 on the second lap.

At the head of the field, Dalton closed the gap on Logan for the lead of the race, and on lap 6 he launched an assault for the race lead at Turn 1.

The #43 Mustang snuck it's nose up the inside at the mid-corner, though Logan held tough on a wider line mid-corner, with Dalton bumping the passenger door of the #56 Tickford entry, before getting all crossed up after taking the inside kerb.

From that moment onwards, Logan was largely untroubled, as he controlled the pace at the head of the field.

For the second time, Goodall found himself fighting back through the pack, and he came up to local debutant Rossi Johnson on lap 13 at the Turn 6 hairpin.

As Johnson covered in the #333 Holden, Goodall attempted to take an extremely narrow line, and tagged the rear of the Apogee Motorsport entry, picking up a 15 second penalty as Johnson was spun to the rear of the field.

In the closing laps, Morris closed on to the rear of Dalton as Logan cleared out, though with 15 seconds from the start incident hanging over Morris' head it had no bearing on the final result.

But on the penultimate lap, Dalton locked an inside front into Turn 1, and fired off the road, dropping him from second back to fifth as he looked poised to stretch out his points lead.

Logan ultimately finished 1.9 seconds up the road from Morris at the flag, with the PremiAir Racing co-driver then demoted to seventh in the final order.

Hall claimed second in just his third career Super2 start for Eggleston Motorsport, 6.9 seconds behind Logan, whilst Ben Gomersall rounded out the podium for Tickford, capitalising on the late woe for Dalton.

The top 10 was rounded out by Dalton, Hodson, Matt Hillyer, Morris, Brad Vaughan, Elliott Cleary, and Jordyn Sinni.

Super2 returns to Hidden Valley tomorrow for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:05am local time/10:35am AEST, before the second and final race of the weekend at 1:15pm local/1:45pm AEST.