With an extraordinarily long break between round one in February and the weekend’s second round of competition in the feeder series for the main Supercars championship, Best got back behind the wheel of his #78 Anderson Motorsport entry on Friday for first practice in fifth spot on the overall points standings, having notched a pole position in the opening race of the championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.
But the first session of the weekend at Hidden Valley Raceway on Friday made it clear that Best was starting a fair way off the pace in Darwin, over a second behind the session’s fastest lap and, while he closed the gap down to just under six-tenths by the end of second practice, he managed only the 11th fastest lap in the session, with plenty of ground to make up ahead of qualifying.
Less than half a second separated Best from polesitter and series leader Lachie Dalton at the end of qualifying for race one, but 12 cars were between them, with Best set to line up 14th on the grid for the first race of the weekend, and while he managed to move up two spots on Saturday afternoon, his 12th placed finish meant he gave up even more ground to Dalton.
Still, a good result in race two on Sunday afternoon could salvage a good weekend for Best, but Sunday morning’s qualifying saw the Benalla product put in the 16th fastest time, leaving him a mountain to climb.
Climb he did, though, showing he still possessed solid race pace to pass five cars and finish in 11th spot on the road, however polesitter Dalton furthered his lead in the championship by taking the win and the maximum 150 points on offer.
It proved a big blow to Best’s standing in the championship, dropping three spots overall to finish the weekend in eighth spot, 168 points adrift of Dalton, who enjoys a 75-point buffer back to second at the top of the leaderboard.
Best will look to regroup with just over a month off before next hitting the track in Perth from July 31 to August 2, with the Super2 cars heading back to Wanneroo Raceway for the first time since 2024 to complete the first half of the season.
Part of the fixture at both of the Supercars Enduro Cup rounds at the Bathurst 1000 and Sandown 500 will follow in October and November, before heading to the Adelaide Grand Final in late November, where Best will be hoping to go one better than his three previous overall runner-up placings and hoist the Super2 Championship trophy.
