GRM’s Aaron Cameron was victorious in the second TCR Australia race of the weekend at Symmonds Plains Raceway, ahead of a career-best effort from the independent Audi of Lachlan Mineeff.
At the start, pole-sitter Michael Clemente was slow away from the line in his Audi, allowing Mineeff to assume the lead in his Liqui Moly-backed Audi, as Cameron jumped two places from fourth to second before the first corner.
Cameron kept with Mineeff in the first half of the race, before making a move on the 20-year-old at the hairpin on lap 12 to take the lead which he then held for the second half of the race.
For Mineeff, second marks his first-ever podium finish in TCR Australia in his 31st race, and he ultimately finished just over three seconds adrift of the race-winning Peugeot.
GRM’s Jordan Cox completed the podium, having caught the pole-sitter Clemente’s Audi on the second lap, before making a pass on the next tour.
Ashely Seward Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant held third for the first three laps, but Cox got by on lap four to claim the final podium position.
Oliphant temporarily dropped to fifth behind Will Brown’s Audi for five laps, but Brown – whose Audi, along with the RS3 of Zac Soutar, had been repaired locally in Launceston overnight following a brace of driveshaft failures – soon retired from the race as the problem reared its head again.
That left Oliphant to inherit fourth which he held to the finish, ahead of Clemente in fifth.
Saturday’s race one winner Bailey Sweeny – who had started from tenth in the partially reverse-grid race – took the chequered in sixth, struggling to make progress in a race which saw few overtaking moves, Sweeny only moving up when others encountered issues.
Reigning champion Tony D’Alberto was seventh in the sole Wall Racing Honda, ahead of the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi of Iain McDougall in eighth.
The top ten was completed by the Hyundai Elantra of Josh Buchan and the Peugeot of Kody Garland, the latter dropping from a high of sixth to the back of the field on lap five.
Ben Bargwanna retired from eighth with just over one lap to go when his Peugeot stopped coming out of Turn 3.
The local repairs made to the two second-generation Audis of Brown and Soutar failed to hold in the race, with the duo retiring in the first half of the race and being unlikely to make race three.