Fabian Coulthard scored a lights-to-flag victory in the final race of the TCR Australia series meeting at Phillip Island, holding off a late-race charge from Will Brown for his second successive win.
Coulthard started race three from pole position thanks to scoring the highest number of points in the opening two races, with the Audi of race one winner Jay Hanson alongside him on the front row of the grid.
When the lights went out, Jordan Cox, from third on the grid, made a strong start and drew level with the front row men, resulting in the trio going three-abreast into the opening corner.
Contact was made, which pitched Hanson off the circuit out wide at the first corner, whilst Cox dropped to eighth as Coulthard assumed the lead ahead of Ben Bargwanna and Dylan O’Keeffe.
The leading trio then held station for the opening laps, until on lap three Braydan Wilmington made a mistake on the exit of the first corner and spun off into the tyre barriers.
The next lap around, with Wilmington having limped away from the scene, Hanson and Cox, now running in ninth and tenth, made contact on the main straight, which gave the Audi driver a right-rear puncture, pitching him off the circuit at Turn 2.
Later around the lap, Kody Garland then lost the right-rear wheel of his Renault Mégane RS at the final corner, pitching him into the gravel at high speed and requiring a four-lap safety car intervention.
By this stage, Brown had made his way up to fifth, from ninth on the grid, having passed two cars at the start and made up two more places in the opening trio of laps.
Racing resumed on lap nine, with Wall Racing’s Coulthard making a strong break from the Peugeot of Bargwanna.
Brown immediately went on the attack and took Tony D’Alberto’s Honda for fourth at Turn 2, as further back Cox continued to recover from the lap one incident and passed Michael Caruso for sixth at the Turn 4 hairpin, with Aaron Cameron also briefly looking around the outside of Caruso.
A lap later Brown took O’Keeffe for third at the first corner, then repeated the move on Bargwanna two laps later on lap 12 to move into second.
The 2019 champion took no time in getting onto the rear of Coulthard to challenge for the lead a lap later, but despite applying four laps of intense pressure, he couldn’t find a way past Coulthard and had to settle for second, as Coulthard took his second win of the day.
Bargwanna completed the podium in third, ahead of O’Keeffe in fourth.
D’Alberto was fifth, and in doing so the Honda driver has assumed the series lead, with an advantage of just two points over Cox.
Cox took sixth after his charge faded in the final laps, ahead of the leading Alfa Romeo of Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Caruso in seventh and the independent Honda of Zac Soutar in eighth.
The top ten was completed by HMO Customer Racing’s leading Hyundai of Bailey Sweeny in ninth and Cameron’s Peugeot in tenth.
Hanson ultimately finished down in 18th after having to pit for a new tyre. Liam McAdam in 17th was the last driver on the lead lap, the Audi driver having been running in 15h before he slid off the circuit and lost ground.
Erstwhile championship leader Josh Buchan, who had led the standings heading into the event, was only 14th, having made progress from the back of the grid but not enough to challenge for a top ten.
Michael Clemente failed to start the race after his fan belt issue in race two could not be fixed in time.
The next round of TCR Australia takes place at Mount Panorama in Bathurst on 16 – 17 April.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 24 |  |
Fabian COULTHARD | Stan Sport Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 30:07.1782 | 1:37.378 | 1 | |
| 2 | 999 |  |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 0.150 | 1:37.199 | 9 | |
| 3 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 1.767 | 1:37.445 | 6 | |
| 4 | 8 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 2.219 | 1:37.668 | 4 | |
| 5 | 50 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 4.258 | 1:37.942 | 5 | |
| 6 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Swyftx GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 4.680 | 1:37.860 | 3 | |
| 7 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 16 | 5.176 | 1:37.649 | 10 | |
| 8 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 16 | 9.108 | 1:38.418 | 7 | |
| 9 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 9.427 | 1:38.360 | 14 | |
| 10 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 9.860 | 1:37.950 | 15 | |
| 11 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 11.446 | 1:38.524 | 13 | |
| 12 | 333 | |
Brad SHIELS | Royal Purple Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 13.275 | 1:38.615 | 11 | |
| 13 | 34 | |
James MOFFAT | LCMT+ Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 16 | 13.894 | 1:38.296 | 18 | |
| 14 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 14.319 | 1:38.420 | 21 | |
| 15 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 16.789 | 1:38.677 | 8 | |
| 16 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 16.894 | 1:38.325 | 12 | |
| 17 | 97 | |
Liam MCADAM | Forza Brakes Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 18.036 | 1:38.566 | 20 | |
| 18 | 9 | |
Jay HANSON | AWC MPC Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:38.038 | 2 | |
| 19 | 89 | |
Braydan WILLMINGTON | Braydan Willmington Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:39.476 | 16 | |
| R | 41 | |
Kody GARLAND | Valvoline Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:38.714 | 17 | |
| NS | 15 | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Michael Clemente Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 19 |