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Dalton wastes no time in claiming second series win
Lochie Dalton has continued the momentum from his debut National Trans Am Series win on Saturday to claim another emphatic victory in race two at Hi-Tec Oils Race Winton.
The AWC GRM driver led a clean train of angry Trans Ams through turn one, and was able to build a two second gap between himself and The Racing Academy’s Cody Gillis in the early stages.
All American Driveline’s Ben Grice was alternating positions with the latter throughout the opening stages of the race, before the fast-starting Team Valvoline GRM entry of James Moffat joined the party.
The series leader was on the hunt for his first win since the opening round of the season after passing Grice for third, then held steady behind the impressive Gillis as the gap to Dalton slowly began to shrink.
Controlling the race from the front, Dalton was able to hold on to claim his second series win by just over a second ahead of the 24-year-old, who has claimed back-to-back second places in only his third ever round in the category.
Crossing the line in a comfortable third was the Ford Mustang of Moffat, putting himself in a winnable position for the third and final race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon.
Just missing out on a podium position was Grice, with the All American Driveline sitting snug behind Moffat’s Mustang a second ahead.
Dream Racing Australia returnee Jackson Rice was able to hold off a valiant Edan Thornburrow to claim yet another top five finish in his first race weekend of the year with the team.
Unable to make up as many positions as he would have hoped was Supercheap Auto Racing’s Nash Morris, who will have plenty of work to do in the final race if he wants to pick up another victory after his round win at Phillip Island.
A further seven seconds back from Morris was the TPS Group / Breeze Holiday Parks Brett Holdsworth, receiving a black and white flag for blocking whilst managing a pack of five drivers desperate to make their way past the Victorian.
Caught up in the pack was Phillip Island outright podium-getter Tom Hayman who was unable to make his way past despite multiple attempts on Holdsworth – but having to be careful with Owen Kelly’s Mustang hot in his tail for the majority of the encounter.
Holdsworth would go on to finish in eighth place with Hayman and Kelly holding their positions to cross the line in ninth and tenth respectively, ahead of Pioneer Dj’s Elliot Barbour.
Dalton will now have his eyes on a National Trans Am Series round clean sweep when the series returns to the track for the 100km feature race at 3:10pm AEST.
You can catch all the action live, on-demand, and ad-break free on Stan Sport.