Will Brown took a second consecutive victory in race three of the TCR Australia series at Sydney Motorsport Park, with the HMO Hyundai driver once again having to fight past the Alfa Romeo of Dylan O’Keeffe for the win.
At the start it was O’Keeffe who once again made a strong dstart, whilst Tony D’Alberto brought his Honda into play alongside Brown as the leaders went three abreast into the first turn.
O’Keeffe emerged ahead of Brown and D’Alberto through the first two corners, until the Subaru of Andre Heimgartner scythed past Brown at Turn 3 to move into second.
The order would stay that way as the safety car was called upon to allow the Audi of Rik Breukers and Jimmy Vernon’s Alfa Romeo to be recovered, after Vernon stalled and Breukers collected him on the start line.
Racing resumed on lap five and O’Keeffe once again got a strong restart, with Heimgartner following in close pursuit until the final two corners when he suffered from a mechanical failure on his Subaru and forcing him into retirement.
O’Keeffe once again held Brown, now back into second, at bay for a few laps, until lap nine when the race two winner found a gap at Turn 3 and seized the lead.
Brown then held on to the chequered flag in the slightly shortened race, taking another win to move to the top of the drivers’ standings.
O’Keefee again took second for Ashley Seward Motorsport, whilst the podium was completed by GWR’s Michael Almond, who passed the Honda of John Martin for third on lap eight before the latter was then tapped out of the race by HMO’s Nathan Morcom.
Morcom was initially classified in fourth, but faced an investigation by the stewards, after hitting both of the Wall Racing Hondas during passes for positon on laps seven and eight. *UPDATE: Morcom was subsequently penalised with two 15-second penalties for contact with D’Alberto and Bright, and a 30-second penalty for contact with Martin, dropping him from fourth to 11th.
Aaron Cameron took a weekend-best fifth position as the leading Volkswagen driver, ahead of the GRM Renault of James Moffat in sixth.
Saturday morning’s pole-sitter Tony D’Alberto was seventh, having bene knocked out of a podium position when he was pushed wide by Morcom at Turn 8 on the seventh lap.
Race one victor Jason Bright brought his Alliance Autosport Volkswagen home in eighth, with the 46-year-old having got a slow start and dropped to sixth on the first lap, before then dropping to tenth when tagged into a huge slide on lap five when Morcom passed at Turn 1.
GRM’s Chris Pither and Kelly Racing’s Alex Rullo completed the top ten in their Renault and Holden cars respectively.
Chelsea Angelo also retired from the race when she pulled off next to Heimgartner’s stricken Subaru on lap eight.
Brown leaves the opening weekend of the season with 122 points after his double win, ahead of O’Keeffe on 110, D’Alberto on 99 points and Bright on 95 points.
Revised race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 30 | Will BROWN |  |
HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 26:55.1637 | 1:36.301 | 1 |
| 2 | 9 | Dylan O’KEEFFE | |
Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 14 | 2.6074 | 1:36.255 | 2 |
| 3 | 29 | Michael ALMOND | |
Astron Tech / GWR Australia | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 4.8040 | 1:36.326 | 7 |
| 4 | 16 | Aaron CAMERON | |
Melbourne Performance | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 6.8661 | 1:36.143 | 10 |
| 5 | 34 | James MOFFAT | |
Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 14 | 7.1207 | 1:36.652 | 12 |
| 6 | 50 | Tony D’ALBERTO | |
Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 14 | 7.8609 | 1:36.619 | 3 |
| 7 | 8 | Jason BRIGHT | |
Taskforce / Alliance Autosport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 8.0198 | 1:36.696 | 4 |
| 8 | 33 | Chris PITHER |  |
Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 14 | 13.1861 | 1:36.956 | 17 |
| 9 | 62 | Alex RULLO | |
Kelly Racing | Holden Astra TCR | 14 | 14.2981 | 1:36.883 | 13 |
| 10 | 35 | Alexandra WHITLEY | |
Alliance Autosport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 20.1971 | 1:37.512 | 16 |
| 11 | 11 | Nathan MORCOM | |
HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 1:06.2615 | 1:36.134 | 8 |
| 12 | 6 | Molly TAYLOR | |
Kelly Racing | Subaru WRX STi | 14 | 1:33.2096 | 1:39.710 | 15 |
| R | 24 | John MARTIN | |
Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:36.779 | 6 |
| R | 37 | Chelsea ANGELO | |
Kelly Racing | Holden Astra TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:40.865 | 14 |
| R | 777 | Andre HEIMGARTNER | |
Kelly Racing | Subaru WRX STi | 5 | DNF | 1:36.934 | 5 |
| R | 7 | Jimmy VERNON | |
Garry Rogers Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 9 |
| R | 22 | Rik BREUKERS |  |
TCR SPA 500 / Melbourne Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 11 |