Buchan wins back-to-back titles as Cox and O’Keeffe win on Sunday

Josh Buchan secured back-to-back TCR Australia titles at Mount Panorama, despite finishing behind title rival Zac Soutar in both of Sunday’s races, as Jordan Cox and Dylan O’Keeffe secured victory honours at Bathurst.

HMO Customer Racing’s Buchan added to his 2023 title with another crown on Sunday, finishing just behind his main title rival Soutar and winning the championship by 18 points.

99motorsport’s Blake Knowles started the reverse-grid race from pole position thanks to finishing tenth on the road in Saturday’s first race, but the Audi driver was involved in some opening lap shenanigans which dropped him back.

Will Harris had lined up alongside him on the front row of the grid, but the Wall Racing Honda driver stalled at the start and dropped to the back of the field.

It meant that GRM’s Ben Bargwanna and Cox, from third and fifth on the grid respectively, ended up battling for the lead into Turn 2, with Cox ultimately winning out.

The Peugeot racer then held the lead for the remainder of the race to claim his fourth win of the season and the second for the GRM-developed brand-new Peugeot 308 P51 TCR car since it made its début at the previous event.

Bargwanna was his closest challenger in the opening laps, but he had to park his Peugeot on lap four due to an oil pressure warning, stopping at The Cutting to prevent further problems.

Despite his earlier stall, by lap three Will Harris was up to sixth, and he then passed Buchan for fifth, becoming fourth with Bargwanna’s retirement.

Three laps from the finish Will Harris then passed Tom Oliphant for third, before a superb pass on the Peugeot of Ryan Casha heading up the mountain for second, completing a strong recovery drive on his way to a first-ever podium in the category.

Oliphant also passed Casha up the mountain to claim the final podium position, ahead of the Ashley Seward Motorsport Lynk & Co of O’Keeffe in fourth, who also got by on the final lap.

Casha thus took the chequered flag in fifth, ahead of Buchan in sixth, but the Hyundai driver had received a five-second penalty for a false start. That gave the position to Soutar in sixth, who kept the title battle open until the final round by outscoring Buchan, who was classified in seventh, by a slender two points.

Brad Harris was the only other finisher in eighth, having had early-race dramas when he made contact with Casha on the opening lap that also collected Knowles’ Audi. The incident forced Harris, who was penalised for the incident, to pit, whilst Knowles limped back to the pits to retire.

GRM’s Aaron Cameron didn’t start due to the power steering issue he had on Saturday, with the team lacking sufficient spare parts for him to play any further role in the weekend.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	33			Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 P51 TCR	11	30:16.3345	2:16.952	5
2	76			Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	2.771	2:16.429	2
3	15			Tom OLIPHANT	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	3.914	2:16.705	7
4	11			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	4.308	2:16.602	9
5	79			Ryan CASHA	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	6.545	2:16.985	4
6	110			Zac SOUTAR	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	7.153	2:17.111	10
7	1			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	11.950	2:16.776	8
8	74			Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	+ 2 LAPS	2:28.584	6
R	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Hangcha Racing	Peugeot 308 P51 TCR	3	DNF	2:17.369	3
R	99			Blake KNOWLES	99motorsport / Pacific Fuel	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	1	DNF	N/A	1
NS	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	11

Dylan O’Keeffe won race three. Photo: TCR Australia / Insyde MediaRace three

With Soutar making tiny inroads into Buchan’s lead in race two, it left the gap between the duo at 29 points in favour of Buchan heading into the finale race – meaning effectively only a retirement for Buchan would have handed the title to Soutar, no matter what the Audi driver did.

In the end, it proved to be a quiet finale for the championship, as front-row starter O’Keeffe got the jump on pole-sitter Soutar at the start and went on to secure a comfortable victory.

O’Keeffe and Soutar went side-by-side heading up the mountain on the opening lap, with Soutar surviving sliding wide at Griffins Bend, but dropping to seventh in the process – just ahead of Buchan.

As a result, Cox found himself up a place from his grid position in second at the end of the opening lap, but it was to be short-lived, as his Peugeot then stopped on track and he had to re-fire the car, dropping to a distant last, where he circulated for the rest of the race.

That gifted second to Oliphant, who held the place to the finish, with Soutar completing the podium having hauled himself back up to the rostrum by the fifth lap. With Buchan finishing, Soutar ultimately fell short of the title by 18 points.

Casha took fourth in the leading GRM Peugeot, ahead of Will Harris in fifth and Buchan in sixth, the result handing him a second TCR Australia title.

Brad Harris was seventh, ahead of Bargwanna in eighth, Knowles in ninth and Cox in tenth, over a minute behind the winner.

Race three result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	11			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	30:15.0342	2:15.359	2
2	15			Tom OLIPHANT	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	0.753	2:15.516	4
3	110			Zac SOUTAR	Tufflift Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	7.556	2:15.198	1
4	79			Ryan CASHA	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	14.869	2:16.713	8
5	76			Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	15.551	2:16.599	6
6	1			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	21.841	2:17.087	5
7	74			Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	11	23.789	2:17.169	7
8	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Hangcha Racing	Peugeot 308 P51 TCR	11	25.184	2:17.695	9
9	99			Blake KNOWLES	99motorsport / Pacific Fuel	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:00.178	2:17.987	10
10	33			Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 P51 TCR	11	1:15.661	2:16.733	3
NS	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–