It was the Wild West at the Sucrogen Townsville 400 this afternoon with the Dunlop Series bearing soft tyres for the first time during Race Three.

From the get go there was chaos with Daniel Gaunt being shoved at the start, causing the Marque Management Holden Commodore VE II to make an early pit stop.

Gaunt wasn’t the only one who got caught up amongst the do or die racing with Greg Murphy Racing’s Jim Pollicina taking out Pacific Hoist’s Nandi Kiss on Lap Two in what was a dusty spectacle that ultimately brought out the safety car.

The 18-lap race was dominated by the Safety Car and after the race just went green Novocastrian Motorsports Drew Russell and Rodney Jane had an altercation parking both cars on the track.

Simultaneously Formula Tech/Interquip Racing’s Brett Stewart and Finance Ezi Racing’s young Kiwi driver Andre Heimgartner clashed at turn three and the safety car made another appearance.

Among all the carnage Sherrin Rentals Steve Owen and Matt White Motorsports Dale Wood managed a clean run, taking out one and two.

Brad Jones Racing’s Andrew Jones came in third and said running on soft tyres helped him hold on to a podium finish.

“The soft tyres suited us better. They were pretty good for me and it definitely lit my car up,” Jones said.

It was the first time the Dunlop Series had raced on soft tyres and Jones said it was a good initiative to close the gap between Dunlop Series and the V8 Supercars Championship.

“They do it in the main series, if you want to have a seat in the V8 Supercars Championship we need to do this sort of thing, it’s good for this category,” Jones said.

“The idea of this category is to bring people along so when you get to the main game it isn’t such a big step and if that means getting out on soft tyres on the last race on a Sunday afternoon, it’s no different to what the guys experience in the main game.”

Owen, who had a successful weekend both in the Dunlop Series and the main game as a co-driver for Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison, said it was good to finish the weekend on top.

“It’s been a fantastic way to start my co-driving season in the FPR car. It’s ideal preparation. We are suing Will’s engineer and getting used to my feedback so really it couldn’t be any better preparation getting ready for the big one,” said Owen.

The Dunlop Series will be on track again at the Coates Hire Ipswich 360, July 26-28 for round four of the 2013 Dunlop Series Championship.

Wood will head to the next round on top of the Championship ladder above Ipswich local Ash Walsh on 693 points.

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