HMO Customer Racing’s Bailey Sweeny romped to a first-ever win in the second TCR Australia race at Bathurst, having passed pole-sitter Michael Caruso for the lead on the second lap of the race.
Caruso found himself on the reverse grid pole after finishing tenth in race one, and the Ashley Seward Motorsport driver held out on the first lap, despite banging wheels with Sweeny at the first corner.
However, on the run to The Chase on lap two, HMO Customer Racing’s Sweeny charged down the inside of Caruso’s Alfa Romeo for the lead, and he never looked back thereafter.
In the end, 19-year-old Sweeny would win by a comfortable 11.4 seconds, making it the second biggest winning margin in the series’ short history.
GRM’s James Moffat claimed second, equalling his best-ever result in series, the Renault driver having hauled himself from sixth on the grid to third on the opening lap, before then passing Caruso for second at The Chase on lap four.
Caruso looked set to hold the final podium place, but on the last lap HMO’s Josh Buchan stole third going down the mountain, leaving Caruso to take the chequered flag in fourth.
Dylan O’Keeffe was the leading Peugeot driver in fifth, having run in fourth earlier in the race until Buchan’s Hyundai came alive later in the race and demoted him a place.
Tony D’Alberto looked lively early in the race, running in fourth, until he lost two places in the middle of the race and ended up in sixth. Nonetheless, the Wall Racing driver continues to lead the championship standings with an advantage of 40 points over O’Keeffe, despite still having never won a race in the series.
Ben Bargwanna got the better of Peugeot rival Aaron Cameron for seventh on lap eight, as Cameron found himself being muscled out several times in the race.
Brad Shiels claimed eighth from Cameron at the start of lap nine, leaving race one winner Cameron to finish in ninth. Earlier in the race, Cameron had been muscled off track at the final corner by fellow Peugeot racer Jordan Cox whilst running in seventh, although Cox would later lose several places and finish behind Cameron anyway.
Melbourne Performance Centre’s Will Brown completed the top ten, the 2019 champion having dropped from seventh on the grid on the opening lap.
Cox ultimately took the finish in 11th, although the GRM Peugeot driver had impressively climbed from the back of the grid up to that position on the opening lap. He then made further inroads up to a high of eighth on lap four, before dropping five places the next time around and having to recover lost ground.
Wall Racing’s Tim Slade was the only retirement of the race, having found he had no brakes in his Honda on the opening lap.
Race three is scheduled to get underway at 10:10 local time on Sunday (01:10 BST, 02:10 CEST).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 130 |  |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 22:36.4454 | 2:13.947 | 2 | |
| 2 | 34 | |
James MOFFAT | LCMT+ Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 10 | 11.4742 | 2:15.141 | 6 | |
| 3 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 11.8067 | 2:14.727 | 3 | |
| 4 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 10 | 12.7790 | 2:15.178 | 1 | |
| 5 | 8 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 13.2997 | 2:14.979 | 8 | |
| 6 | 50 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 14.0406 | 2:14.885 | 4 | |
| 7 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 14.7028 | 2:14.655 | 9 | |
| 8 | 333 | |
Brad SHIELS | Royal Purple Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 16.7201 | 2:15.267 | 11 | |
| 9 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 17.2260 | 2:15.121 | 10 | |
| 10 | 999 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 17.8985 | 2:15.118 | 7 | |
| 11 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Swyftx GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 18.1890 | 2:14.994 | 21 | |
| 12 | 2 | |
Luke KING | MOUTAI / Zip Pay | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 18.9966 | 2:15.540 | 16 | |
| 13 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 19.5623 | 2:15.472 | 13 | |
| 14 | 15 | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Michael Clemente Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 20.3227 | 2:15.542 | 15 | |
| 15 | 9 | |
Jay HANSON | AWC MPC Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 20.5670 | 2:15.606 | 14 | |
| 16 | 41 | |
Kody GARLAND | Valvoline Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 10 | 21.8605 | 2:15.566 | 17 | |
| 17 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 10 | 22.2721 | 2:15.232 | 18 | |
| 18 | 89 | |
Braydan WILLMINGTON | Braydan Willmington Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 10 | 31.5875 | 2:16.257 | 19 | |
| 19 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 55.9080 | 2:17.840 | 20 | |
| 20 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 59.6610 | 2:16.945 | 12 | |
| R | 24 | |
Tim SLADE | Stan Sport Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 5 |