Paul Weel steals SST Townsville Race 3 victory in final turn

The third and final race of the Boost Mobile Super Trucks‘ Townsville 500 weekend appeared to come down to Paul Morris and Shae Davies as the two approached the last corner. However, their battle instead opened the door for Paul Weel to slip past and move from third to first to win his second Stadium Super Truck race.

A field inversion from Race #2 placed Rob Whyte, who retired from said event with a brake failure, on the pole ahead of Phillip Foster. Weel, who won the second race for his maiden SST victory, started last.

Whyte cleared the field early with Davies moving into second. The two ran in the order for the first three laps before Davies passed him in turn two; Whyte tried his own move in the thirteenth and final turn, where they made contact but he failed to make the overtake. A lap later, Whyte fell two spots to Morris and Race #1 winner Toby Price after running wide into turn eleven.

By the first competition caution on lap six, Davies led Morris, Price, Whyte, Shaun Richardson, Weel, Trav Milburn, Dave Casey, and Foster. While the top three pulled ahead on the restart, Weel overtook Richardson and Whyte in a three-abreast pass approaching turn three to take fourth. He gained another position on lap eight when the driveshaft fell out of Price’s truck and ended his race.

Price’s retirement prompted the second competition yellow to come out, and the race resumed on the penultimate lap as the grid exited turn three. Morris took the lead after cutting through the grass in turn seven.

On the final lap, Davies reclaimed the lead after accumulating enough momentum in the slipstream to pass him entering turn one. Morris tried a move in the final corner on the inside line, but he ran wide and Davies also went too deep while trying to hinder him.

Weel took advantage of the two’s battle to duck to the inside himself and score the victory. He joins Morris and Davies as the only multi-time winners in 2021, while Weel and Morris are the only drivers with consecutive victories. Weel also joins E.J. Viso (three straight wins at Detroit in 2014) and Matt Brabham (sweep of Detroit in 2016) in the small company of SST racers whose first two victories came in back-to-back rounds.

Morris held off Davies to take second.

Race results