HMO Customer Racing’s Will Brown took victory in the second TCR Australia series race at The Bend Motorsport Park, taking the lead at the first corner and controlling the race thereafter.
Brown beat pole-sitter Garth Tander into the lead at the very start of the race, with the Honda of John Martin moving into second, as Tander then had to battle with the Renault of Chris Pither in the following two laps in the fight for third.
Pither passed Tander on lap three at the first corner, shortly before the safety car was required in order to recover the stranded Volkswagen of Alexandra Whitley, who had stopped on track with a coolant warning light issue.
Racing resumed on lap five and Pither immediately passed Martin for second, whilst Tander sought to pass Martin for third as well as hold off the second Renault of James Moffat in fourth.
Tander passed Martin for third on the following lap, but racing lasted only for two laps as Jimmy Vernon collected the Opel of Alex Rullo after running wide, eliminating both drivers from the race and requiring the latter to be recovered.
Racing again resumed on lap nine, but it didn’t take long for another incident, as Pither bizarrely crashed into the wall at the start of the following lap when he locked his rear brakes into Turn 1 and the car pitched to the left.
That left Brown leading Tander and Moffat, completing the podium in the crash-strewn race, with Martin just missing out on a podium position after losing out to Moffat.
Rookie Jordan Cox brought the second Wall Racing Honda home in fifth, ahead of series newcomer Russell Ingall in sixth.
HMO’s Nathan Morcom started from fourth but dropped back at the start, eventually claiming seventh in the second Hyundai, ahead of Leanne Tander’s Audi in eighth.
Honda’s Tony D’Alberto and the Ashley Seward-run Alfa Romeo of Dylan O’Keeffe completed the top ten.
After hitting a rock on the circuit in Saturday’s first race, Jason Birght could only manage 11th from near the back of the grid.
Race result
POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 30 | Will BROWN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 27:26.4026 | 1:58.415 | 2 | |
2 | 4 | Garth TANDER | Melbourne Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 0.656 | 1:58.553 | 1 | |
3 | 34 | James MOFFAT | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 11 | 1.180 | 1:58.667 | 7 | |
4 | 24 | John MARTIN | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 11 | 1.582 | 1:58.778 | 3 | |
5 | 38 | Jordan COX | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 11 | 1.985 | 1:58.969 | 6 | |
6 | 100 | Russell INGALL | Melbourne Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 5.461 | 1:59.658 | 9 | |
7 | 11 | Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 5.597 | 1:59.203 | 4 | |
8 | 3 | Leanne TANDER | Melbourne Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 6.725 | 1:59.894 | 11 | |
9 | 50 | Tony D’ALBERTO | Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 11 | 8.013 | 1:59.488 | 13 | |
10 | 9 | Dylan O’KEEFFE | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 11 | 8.642 | 1:59.479 | 17 | |
11 | 8 | Jason BRIGHT | Taskforce / Alliance Autosport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 11.807 | 2:00.384 | 16 | |
12 | 37 | Chelsea ANGELO | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra TCR | 11 | 51.444 | 2:02.879 | 19 | |
R | 16 | Aaron CAMERON | Melbourne Performance | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:59.640 | 12 | |
R | 33 | Chris PITHER | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:59.633 | 5 | |
R | 7 | Jimmy VERNON | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 6 | DNF | 2:00.013 | 14 | |
R | 62 | Alex RULLO | Kelly Racing | Holden Astra TCR | 6 | DNF | 2:00.230 | 8 | |
R | 6 | Molly TAYLOR | Kelly Racing | Subaru WRX STi | 2 | DNF | N/A | 15 | |
R | 35 | Alexandra WHITLEY | Alliance Autosport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 10 | |
NS | 777 | Andre HEIMGARTNER | Kelly Racing | Subaru WRX STi | – | DNS | N/A | – |