Finals contenders swept up in chaotic start

A number of 2026 Supercars Finals contenders have been caught up in a chaotic opening to Race 22.

The NTI Townsville 500 started in dramatic fashion towards the front of the field, with Ryan Wood attempting to round up Cam Waters at Turn 2.

Where Waters was able to hang on, others behind were swept up in what was another classic Turn 2 concertina.

Macauley Jones, Aaron Cameron, Andre Heimgartner and wildcard Reuben Goodall were all forced into the garage after the dramatic incident.

Cameron was turned in front of the field with Heimgartner directly behind. De Pasquale, who raced from 11th to second on Saturday, was left with nowhere to go.

Jones came off even worse, sustaining major front and rear damage to his #96 AlphaTheta Toyota, with wildcard rookie Goodall bringing his Ford to a stop at the Turn 3 run-off.

Cameron and Jones crawled their damaged cars back to pit lane, while the stranded Goodall triggered the Shannons Safety Car, before getting back underway and limping back to the pits.

While he got away with minimal damage in the clash, Heimgartner was forced out with a terminal engine issue.

Heimgartner, who started the day 132 points behind Golding, stepped out of his car and into retirement by lap 10. Cameron also stepped out of his damaged Ford.

Stewards deemed no further investigation was necessary over the incident.

Later around the opening lap, as the field bunched together under control of the Safety Car, Golding — who had made a flying start from 21st — was tipped into a spin by Erebus Motorsport’s Cooper Murray.

The incident sent Golding back down to 21st, while Murray was slapped with a 15-second penalty over the collision.