Aaron Cameron doubles up in final Bathurst race

Aaron Cameron won the final TCR Australia race of the weekend at Bathurst by a comfortable margin over Bailey Sweeny to move himself back into championship contention.

Having scored the most points in the weekend’s first two races, GRM’s James Moffat had secured the pole position for the final race, with Cameron alongside.

At the start, however, Cameron was into the lead before the first corner and the Peugeot driver quickly scampered off into a clear lead, with a margin of over six and a half seconds by the end of the first tour.

And that was largely as close as the chasing field got for the rest of the race, as Cameron became a four-time winner in the series, of which three have come at Mount Panorama, with an easy victory.

Moffat ran in second until lap six, when Sweeny managed to get down the inside at The Chase, the HMO Customer Racing driver having gained fourth from Ben Bargwanna at the same place on the outside three laps prior, and then getting past Dylan O’Keeffe a lap later.

Moffat held third for one more lap, but was then tapped into a huge slide at Griffins Bend by O’Keeffe a lap later, dropping him to sixth.

O’Keeffe would go on to complete the podium behind Sweeny, but the GRM Peugeot driver was later handed a post-race ten second penalty for the incident with Moffat, dropping him to ninth.

That promoted HMO’s Josh Buchan into third, the Hyundai driver having gained to places on the lap when Moffat was tapped wide, as Ben Bargwanna dropped two places in quick succession to Brown and Buchan after going wide exiting the final turn.

Moffat ultimately was classified in fourth after the penalties to two of his rivals were applied, ahead of Bargwanna in fifth.

Brown was sixth after his five-second penalty for contact with Buchan was applied, ahead of the independent Hyundai of Brad Shiels in seventh.

Championship leader Tony D’Alberto once again scored consistently and was eighth, ahead of O’Keeffe and GRM’s Jordan Cox, who again had to charge through the field from the back of the grid, making up 11 places over the course of the race.

Michael Caruso claimed 11^th in the Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo, having been dumped out of the top ten by Cox with three laps to go.

Luke King would have brought his Hyundai home in 12^th but he was given a post-race 30-second time penalty for contact with Tim Slade on lap seven, which saw the Wall Racing driver spin out of 11^th at the final corner, dropping King to 19^th and giving the place to Michael Clemente.

Ultimately all drivers were classified finishers in the race, with GRM’s Kody Garland finishing two laps down after having had to pit for repairs when he crashed into the tyres at Griffins Bend on the opening lap.

D’Alberto continues to lead the championship with 322 points, ahead of Brown (285) and O’Keeffe (280), with none of the top three having yet won a race, such is the importance of consistency in the series.

The next round of TCR Australia takes place at Sydney Motorsport Park on 27 – 29 May.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	22:28.5423	2:14.330	2
2	130			Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	6.612	2:13.902	5
3	30			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	11.121	2:14.579	6
4	34			James MOFFAT	LCMT+ Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	10	12.830	2:14.942	1
5	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	13.522	2:14.789	4
6	999			Will BROWN	MPC Team Liqui Moly	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	14.745	2:14.036	8
7	333			Brad SHIELS	Royal Purple Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	15.127	2:15.143	10
8	50			Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	16.572	2:15.452	7
9	8			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	17.941	2:14.326	3
10	33			Jordan COX	Swyftx GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	18.034	2:14.161	21
11	10			Michael CARUSO	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	10	27.454	2:16.513	9
12	15			Michael CLEMENTE	Michael Clemente Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	27.811	2:15.856	13
13	110			Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	28.130	2:15.944	15
14	9			Jay HANSON	AWC MPC Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	28.567	2:15.541	12
15	11			Nathan MORCOM	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	29.603	2:15.294	16
16	89			Braydan WILLMINGTON	Braydan Willmington Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	10	36.193	2:16.096	19
17	24			Tim SLADE	Stan Sport Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	36.841	2:15.187	11
18	22			Iain MCDOUGALL	Melbourne Performance Centre	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	51.639	2:15.805	20
19	2			Luke KING	MOUTAI / Zip Pay	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	58.792	2:15.798	14
20	14			Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	59.413	2:15.220	18
21	41			Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	8	+ 2 LAPS	2:25.304	17