Chaz Mostert extended his championship lead in the TCR Australia series with a resounding second victory of the day in race two at Bathurst, fighting back past Aaron Cameron after losing the lead at the start.
Mostert, who had edged out Cameron in the first race of the day, initially made a poor start when the lights went out for race two, allowing the Peugeot 308 of Cameron to leap into the lead.
In the first phase of the race it was then Cameron who was able to hold the advantage, as the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver opened up a lead of over two and a half seconds at one stage.
However, Mostert found the pace in his Audi RS3 after the first couple of laps and set about cutting Cameron’s advantage, eventually pulling onto the rear bumper of the Peugeot from lap five.
Mostert then made his move for the lead into The Chase on the fifth lap, cleanly passing Cameron, whose pace had dropped off by this stage.
Unable to put up a fight, Cameron had to watch Mostert open up an advantage of several seconds to double his win tally of the day. Mostert has now won four races of the current season and is the comfortable championship leader.
For the second race in a row Cameron had to settle for second, whilst the final podium position went to series returnee Garth Tander.
Tander had run in fourth in the early stages of the race, behind the Alfa Romeo of Jay Hanson, but on lap five he made a move into Turn 1, putting him on the outside line for Turn 2.
Hanson held his nerve and line into the corner, but the battle with Tander allowed the resurgent Jordan Cox to close in.
As the duo ahead slowed each other with their battling, Cox dived up the inside at Turn 2, only to clip the right-rear wheel of Hanson’s car, with the latter pulling up on the exit of the corner due to the damage.
Cox was able to continue, eventually taking the chequered flag in fourth after being unable to close in on Tander to have another attempt at a podium position.
John Martin was the leading Honda driver in fifth, as his Wall Racing team-mate Tony D’Alberto again endured another race to forget, pitting twice with issues on his Civic.
Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth claimed sixth, the former Supercars ace having enjoyed a battling race which saw him claim the position from the Hyundai of Brad Shiels just two laps from the end with a solid pass at The Chase.
Shiels, battling hard with Holdsworth, then lost out to the Renault of James Moffat on the exit of The Chase as his momentum was slowed, allowing Moffat to claim seventh and Shiels the best of the Hyundai drivers in eighth.
The top ten was completed by the GRM Alfa Romeo of Michael Caruso in ninth and Jason Bargwanna’s Peugeot in tenth.
The final race of the weekend is scheduled to get underway at 10:12 local time (00:12 BST 3 April, 01:12 CEST) on Sunday.