ZAK Best has a stall to thank for hanging onto the Dunlop Super2 Series lead ahead of Bathurst.
It was a challenging Sandown 500 event for Best in more ways than one.
When contact from Zane Morse sent him off at Turn 9 in the second and final Super2 race of the weekend, it looked as if Kai Allen might suddenly snatch the points lead.
But Best managed to sneak back onto the track and ultimately charged all the way back up to 13th (12th in class) to keep Allen at 33 points adrift.
Best slammed the Sandown Super2 driving standards as “pretty poor” but was grateful for being able to salvage something out of nothing.
“The car stalled which I think saved me,” he told V8 Sleuth of the moments after being punted off by Morse.
“It stalled and stopped me in the gravel and then I just started and drove straight out somehow.
“The car had pretty bad damage, the tyre was off the bead when we came in, so we were pretty lucky to finish.”
Best’s day went from bad to worse when he lost 11 places on the opening lap of the Sandown 500 main event, having started James Courtney’s #5 Tickford Racing Mustang in 14th.
“I got a terrible start. I think I overheated the clutch at the start and it just went to the floor and the wheels spun up once I got going, it was still slipping,” he conceded.
“Then I just couldn’t settle into the pack, I was getting run wide here, run wide there and then got shuffled around.
“I was just trying to be careful with the car and not break it and got run into by a few experienced guys. It is what it is.”
Courtney/Best managed to recover to 12th, representing the lead Tickford finisher.
Another tricky dose of double duties awaits Best at Bathurst on October 5-8.
“Racing these (Gen3) cars is so different to Super2,” he said.
“I think Super2 is almost obsolete, it has made it so difficult (to transition between). The throttle and tyre are probably the biggest thing.”
V8 Sleuth’s ongoing coverage of the Dunlop Series for Super2 and Super3 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.
