Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna share Sandown wins on Sunday

Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna shared the victories in Sunday’s TCR Australia action at Sandown Raceway, resulting in the latter leaving the first round as the clear championship leader.

In the first race on Sunday, the second of the weekend, Wall Racing’s John Martin and Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keeffee had secured the front row for the partially reversed-grid race.

However, at the start neither made an especially good getaway, whilst Cox, from sixth on the grid, made a superb start and was in front before the first corner.

Clay Richards assumed second, from third on the grid, in his Carl Cox Motorsport CUPRA, with GRM’s Ryan Casha following him past the front-row men to hold third early on.

The safety car would be called on after just one lap of racing, however, when Glenn Nirwan tagged the back of Marcus LaDelle’s older Audi at Turn 4. Nirwan was out with broken right-front suspension, whilst LaDelle limped back to the pits with right-rear damage to his RS3.

It took until lap seven for racing to resume, and by this stage the delays were such that there would only be six laps of racing.

Cox came under heavy pressure from Richards for most of those remaining half dozen laps, but the Peugeot driver ultimately prevailed to score his first victory in the series in more than two years.

Richards kept the pressure on the leader until the final half a lap, when he went slightly deep into Turn 9, resulting in him having to settle for second. For the third-generation racer, that represents an impressive second podium in only his eighth start in the series.

Casha completed the podium with his maiden visit to the rostrum in only his second race in TCR, holding off Zac Soutar’s Audi, who was fourth.

Pole-sitter Martin brought his Honda home in fifth, ahead of reigning champion Josh Buchan in sixth, the HMO Customer Racing driver having got past O’Keeffe’s Lynk & Co on the lap after the restart, followed by a deft pass on Bargwanna’s Peugeot a lap later down the back straight.

Bargwanna took seventh, securing him a front-row start for the final race, ahead of GRM’s Aaron Cameron in eighth, the Peugeot driver posting the fastest lap of the race in a recovery drive after starting down in 13^th due to a drive belt issue hampering his Saturday performance.

The top ten was completed by O’Keeffe and Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto, both drivers slipping back in the race after the restart.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	33			Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	20:59.5320	1:16.423	6
2	4			Clay RICHARDS	Carl Cox Motorsport Team MPC	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	12	0.874	1:16.476	3
3	79			Ryan CASHA	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	2.032	1:16.459	4
4	110			Zac SOUTAR	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	2.632	1:16.405	7
5	76			John MARTIN	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	3.808	1:16.782	1
6	1			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	4.221	1:16.592	9
7	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Hangcha Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	4.585	1:16.846	10
8	18	T		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	4.920	1:16.368	13
9	11			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	5.332	1:16.530	2
10	2	T		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	5.843	1:16.487	8
11	74	T		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	6.243	1:16.670	5
12	15	T		Tom OLIPHANT	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	10.054	1:17.260	11
13	22			Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	11.888	1:17.506	15
R	29			Glenn NIRWAN	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	0	DNF	N/A	14
R	99			Marcus LADELLE	Beyond Constructions 99 Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	DNF	N/A	12

Race Two

In race two, Bargwanna made a strong start to jump fellow front-row starter Buchan into the first corner, and the 22-year-old didn’t look back thereafter, romping to a second win of the weekend by over three seconds from the chasing Hyundai.

Buchan didn’t have an answer to Bargwanna’s pace, but with consistency being key in TCR Australia he claimed a second podium of the weekend to ensure he leaves Sandown just two points behind Bargewanna in the drivers’ standings.

The order for the race was effectively set after the opening lap, with race two victor Cox completing the podium, a result which leaves the GRM Peugeot driver third in the points, just six shy of the top of the table.

Soutar brought his Audi home in fourth, ahead of Casha’s Peugeot in fifth and D’Alberto’s Honda in sixth.

Richards was seventh in his CUPRA, ahead of Cameron in eighth, O’Keeffe in ninth and Iain McDougall completing the top ten. The latter had been in 12^th on the penultimate lap, but passed John Martin’s Honda on track and then benefitted from a time penalty for Brad Harris to take tenth.

Harris was handed a 15-second time penalty for contact with Tom Oliphant on the opening lap. Oliphant had just dived inside Harris’ Honda at the penultimate corner, only for Harris to tag the back of the Hyundai on the switchback to go onto the start-finish straight.

Although Oliphant circulated at the back of the pack for 12 laps after the incident, he ultimately retired to the pits with damage to his car.

Harris was thus placed in 12^th, just behind team-mate Martin. The Audis of LaDelle and Nirwan completed the field in 13^th and 14^th respectively.

Bargwanna leads the drivers’ standings with 125 points, ahead of Buchan (123), Cox (119), Soutar (116) and Casha (108). The next round takes place in just over a month, at Symmons Plains on 16 – 17 March.

Race three result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Hangcha Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	21:38.7846	1:16.165	2
2	1			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	3.283	1:15.955	1
3	33			Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	4.704	1:16.221	3
4	110			Zac SOUTAR	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	6.744	1:16.192	4
5	79			Ryan CASHA	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	7.502	1:16.366	5
6	2			Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	17	8.149	1:16.350	7
7	4			Clay RICHARDS	Carl Cox Motorsport Team MPC	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	17	8.636	1:16.334	6
8	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	10.173	1:16.430	11
9	11			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	14.440	1:16.525	10
10	22			Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	29.877	1:17.329	15
11	76			John MARTIN	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	30.467	1:16.843	8
12	74			Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	17	32.111	1:16.437	9
13	99			Marcus LADELLE	Beyond Constructions 99 Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	37.721	1:17.731	13
14	29			Glenn NIRWAN	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	1:11.214	1:17.928	14
R	15			Tom OLIPHANT	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	DNF	1:17.063	12