Will Brown doubles up in eventful Sydney race two

MPC Team Liqui Moly’s Will Brown took a second straight win in the second joint TCR World Tour / TCR Australia race at Sydney Motorsport Park, as early leader Aaron Cameron was hit with a penalty for a false start.

Wall Racing’s Néstor Girolami had started the partially reversed-grid race from pole position, but when the lights went out it was Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk who jumped into the lead, with the fast-starting Peugeot of Cameron challenging around the outside.

Björk aggressively defended from Girolami into Turn 2, but in doing so went deep into the corner and dropped to fifth, opening the door to Cameron and Girolami, who banged wheels in the process.

Further back, BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona was in the thick of a battle with Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua and Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch for seventh, which resulted in Vervsich banging into Azcona as the former went wide, resulting in a damaged front-right tyre for the Hyundai racer, who had to limp to the pits for a new wheel.

Cameron prevailed at the front on the opening lap, but was soon handed a five-second time penalty for the smallest of false starts, meaning he would effectively have to break free from the chasing pack – by now headed up by Girolami and Norbert Michelisz, with Brown down in seventh – to stand any chance of keeping the win.

On lap three, Girolami was out of the race and stricken by the side of the circuit, resulting in a three-lap safety car intervention to retrieve the Honda.

Racing resumed on lap seven, and the drama immediately continued – Björk attempted to pass Michelisz for second at Turn 2, but the Swede, who later admitted his mistake, braked too late and hit the Hyundai, pushing Michelisz wide and breaking the power steering and driveshaft on Björk’s Lynk & Co.

The incident opened the door for Rob Huff to slip into second, with Brown, who had been up to fifth before the safety car, now in third.

It only took two laps for Brown to pass Huff, which he did so at Turn 2, and he set about closing down Cameron’s two second advantage.

By lap 12 the Audi driver was on the tail of the Peugeot, and when Cameron went wide at the Turn 8 hairpin, he assumed the lead of the race.

By the time the chequered flag flew, Brown was over three seconds clear to claim a second successive win and his fourth of the TCR Australia season.

After Cameron’s penalty, Huff took second, whilst Vervisch made it an all-Audi podium in third, having got by Michelisz in the Björk-instigated incident as well.

Michelisz was fourth, ahead of the HMO Customer Racing Hyundai of Josh Buchan in fifth. Buchan had a fierce battle with team-mate and TCR Australia points leader Bailey Sweeny in the mid-part of the race, with the two title rivals completing the podium in the national series.

Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant enjoyed another strong race, taking the chequered flag in seventh and as the top Lynk & Co driver after various incidents for the Cyan Racing cars.

Cameron was classified in eighth after his penalty, with the top ten being completed by Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher and Santiago Urrutia, after the latter dropped back to help his title rival.

Ehrlacher had been running in ninth early on, but was hit by the Peugeot of Jordan Cox on the run to Turn 2 on lap three, resulting in a pitstop for the Frenchman which dropped him to 19^th before the safety car and required him to put in an impressive recovery drive thereafter.

Reigning TCR Australia champion Tony D’Alberto had a relatively quiet race to 12^th.

Additional time penalties for exceeding track limits were dished out to Zac Soutar, who was thus ultimately 16^th, and Ben Bargwanna, whose penalty was moot as he pitted with a misfire late on and was not classified.

Azcona, who had moved closer to the TCR World Tour points lead after his podium on Friday, was ultimately 19^th and a lap down after pitting for a new tyre following the early contact with Vervisch.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 19:55 local time under floodlights (7:55 CET, 08:55 GMT).

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	9	AU		Will BROWN	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	17 LAPS	1:36.412	10
2	179	WT		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	3.4963	1:36.945	7
3	122	WT		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	3.9116	1:36.614	6
4	105	WT		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	17	4.9157	1:36.747	3
5	30	AU		Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	17	5.4325	1:36.098	16
6	130	AU		Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	7.4825	1:36.416	14
7	115	AU		Tom OLIPHANT	Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	17	8.0442	1:36.761	12
8	18	AU		Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	8.1952	1:36.761	4
9	168	WT		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	17	12.8564	1:37.082	5
10	112	WT		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	17	14.1491	1:36.738	22
11	14	AU		Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	17.4328	1:37.509	13
12	1	AU		Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	17	18.8901	1:37.919	15
13	74	AU		Brad HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	19.8984	1:37.644	17
14	33	AU		Jordan COX	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	21.0085	1:36.548	11
15	76	AU		Will HARRIS	Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	23.0228	1:38.072	21
16	110	AU		Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	25.8094	1:38.014	23
17	4	AU		Jimmy CLAIRET	Hangcha Forklifts	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	28.5379	1:38.163	19
18	22	AU		Iain MCDOUGALL	Challenge Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	35.4432	1:39.228	20
19	196	WT		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	16	+ 1 LAP	1:37.731	8
R	71	AU		Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	DNF	1:37.857	18
R	111	WT		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	7	DNF	1:36.988	2
R	155	WT		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	7	DNF	1:36.456	9
R	129	WT		Néstor GIROLAMI	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	2	DNF	1:36.425	1
NS	41	AU		Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–