Tony D’Alberto took victory in a very much shortened opening TCR Australia race at Symmons Plains raceway, which was interrupted by both a red flag and a safety car.
D’Alberto had earlier qualified his Wall Racing Honda on pole by a mere 0.071 seconds over the Hyundai of Josh Buchan, although it had earlier been Aaron Cameron who was quickest in Q1, the GRM driver ultimately ending up fifth in Q2.
At the start of the race, D’Alberto made a good start which was later queried for a jump start, although the 2022 champion saw the investigation later dropped.
Racing initially only lasted a couple of corners, though, as Brad Harris squeezed Ryan Casha into the wall on the long run up to Turn 3.
That crash ripped the front-left subframe and wheel from his Peugeot 308, leaving Casha unable to slow his car for the coming corner and he went straight on and into the gravel at the hairpin bend.
The race was subsequently red-flagged whilst the debris and stricken car were cleared away, with a lengthy delay before racing recommenced.
The restart saw the drivers start from the grid again, with Buchan this time making a better start to challenge D’Alberto.
However, the Honda driver prevailed and held the lead, as behind him Harris, running in third, again was the cause of a delay.
Approaching Turn 3, Harris locked his brakes and went straight on into the gravel, and despite not hitting anything his Honda was stuck and the safety car was called.
After yet another delay as the safety car circulated, and tight timetable constraints, there was little time left for racing when the safety car returned to the pits.
A sprint to the finish saw D’Alberto claim his first win of the season ahead of Buchan, with Zac Soutar completing the podium.
Clay Richards was fourth in his Carl Cox Motorsport CUPRA, ahead of Ben Bargwanna’s GRM-run Peugeot in fifth.
Jordan Cox brought his Peugeot home in sixth, ahead of Cameron in seventh, who finished just ahead of the second HMO Customer Racing Hyundai of Tom Oliphant in eighth, with contact between the duo spearing Oliphant off at Turn 1 and seeing the Brit lose the position to the Peugeot driver.
The top ten was completed by Will Harris’ Honda and Dylan O’Keeffe in the Ashley Seward Motorsport Lynk & Co.
The reversed-grid second race takes place at 12:25 local time on Sunday, followed by race three afterwards, where the grid is based on points scored in the opening two races.
Results to follow when published by the timekeeper.