Walsh Wins Race One

Ash Walsh has laid down the challenge to the rest of the Dunlop Series field at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.

The Infants Friend driver finished runner up in the category last year – and Dale Wood, the man who took the title, has stepped up into V8 Supercars. Does that mean Walsh is in line for the trophy this year, after winning race one in Adelaide?

Starting on the front row alongside ARMOR ALL pole man Cameron Waters, he took the lead off the start-line and held onto it over the 27 laps.

“The car has been fantastic every time we have been on track so far this weekend," Walsh said. 

"We have been in the Top 2 in every session, but we just missed Pole in the first Qualifying. Going into race two I hope we can rectify some of the small issues we had, but it has been really good so far."

While there were fears of carnage at the challenging street circuit, the cars made it through the start, with Walsh and Waters leading Andre Heimgartner, Taz Douglas and Chris Pither.

ENZED backed FPR driver Waters broke the lap record, set last year, numerous times, but it wasn’t enough to take the win from Walsh. The new lap record now stands at 1min22.4929.

While rookie Dan Day received a bad sportsmanship flag for the misuse of kerbs, it was Jim Pollicina whose day was ruined, into the wall on lap 18.

It was a messy restart with six laps to go.

Waters pushed hard on the final lap and third placed Dumbrell (Eggleston Motorsport/Wilson Security) took full advantage, getting past on the final corner of the last lap, but falling short of second at the finish line.

"The car was a really good race car over the distance; it was very fast even in the last few laps," Walsh said. "I was a little wary when the Safety Car came out, but got a good restart and made the gap on the run to the flag. Early days, but a great result for the Infants’ Friend Falcon.” 

Behind Dumbrell, it was Taz Douglas, Chris Pither, Andre Heimgartner, Paul Morris, Jay Verdnik, Andrew Jones and Aaren Russell completing the top 10. 

Click here for full race results.

The Dunlop Series  has another split qualifying session at 11.25am local time, before race two, which will be staged at 5.45pm between both V8 Supercars races.