Will Brown scores first win of the season after mastering tricky conditions

Melbourne Performance Centre’s Will Brown picked up his first TCR Australia win of the season in the final race at Sandown after catching and passing early leader Jordan Cox on the track.

Brown had started the race from pole position, but Cox leapt into the lead with a stronger launch, as Brown dropped to fourth also behind Zac Soutar and Ben Bargwanna away from the line.

Over the next three laps Brown was able to regain his composure and pass Bargwanna into the opening corner on lap three, before muscling past Soutar’s Honda at Turn 9 on the next lap.

Cox though was a harder subject to pass, and Brown followed the GRM Peugeot until lap 13, when he made a clean move up the inside at Turn 9, which despite Cox’s best attempts to re-pass at the next turn, stood thereafter.

Brown then pulled clear to take his first win since claiming the inaugural TCR Australia title in 2019, with Cox losing out to the charging Alfa Romeo of Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Michael Caruso in the latter third of the race.

Cox completed the podium, giving him a first back-to-back podium result since the season opener in January.

HMOS Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan got by Bargwanna for fourth on the penultimate lap, with championship leader Tony D’Alberto following through at the same time to clinch fifth.

Bargwanna, who just hours earlier had claimed his maiden win in the series, was sixth, ahead of the second HMO Hyundai of Bailey Sweeny in seventh – even though the youngster had made contact with D’Alberto at Turn 2 on lap 14 which saw him sent spinning through the mud.

Dylan O’Keeffe brought his Peugeot home in eighth, with the top ten being completed by the fast but unpredictable Audi of Jay Hanson and the Renault of James Moffat – the latter being handed a post-race five-second penalty for having biffed Soutar off the road into the mud with just three laps to go.

That contact ultimately cost Soutar points, as he then went off again later in the lad with muddy tyres and ultimately finished down in 16^th.

D’Alberto continues to lead the standings with just one event left, albeit one with 50% more points on offer, the Honda driver holding 658 points ahead of Cox (602), Brown (585), Buchan (565) and Soutar (565).

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	999			Will BROWN	MPC Team Liqui Moly	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	22	30:15.8210	1:21.219	1
2	10			Michael CARUSO	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	22	1.153	1:20.927	7
3	33			Jordan COX	Swyftx GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	22	9.307	1:21.620	4
4	30			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	22	15.281	1:22.073	6
5	50			Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	15.926	1:21.926	3
6	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	22	16.678	1:22.246	5
7	130			Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	22	17.637	1:21.505	10
8	8			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	22	20.929	1:22.000	16
9	9			Jay HANSON	AWC MPC Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	22	22.347	1:21.547	18
10	34			James MOFFAT	LCMT+ Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	22	25.399	1:21.567	15
11	11			Nathan MORCOM	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	22	26.842	1:22.257	12
12	41			Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	22	30.794	1:21.710	14
13	22			Iain MCDOUGALL	Melbourne Performance Centre	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	22	32.220	1:22.162	11
14	15			Michael CLEMENTE	Michael Clemente Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	37.596	1:22.386	8
15	14			Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	22	44.691	1:22.043	13
16	110			Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	22	50.567	1:22.101	2
R	2			Luke KING	MOUTAI / Zip Pay	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	DNF	1:22.633	17
NS	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	9