HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan slashed his points deficit in the TCR Australia title race to just nine points with a commanding victory in the opening race at the Sydney Motorsport Park.
Buchan had earlier in the day scored pole position in qualifying by lapping over three tenths of a second quicker than the Wall Racing Honda of Brad Harris, as Zac Soutar lacked the pace to challenge for the top positions.
At the start of the race, Buchan duly maintained his advantage away from the lights, as behind him Tony D’Alberto had a brief look inside team-mate Harris into the opening corner before settling for third.
Buchan was unchallenged at the front from the start, whilst Harris quickly cemented second, despite regular puffs of overrun smoke from his Civic.
By the third lap, D’Alberto was fading away from the leading duo, and Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keeffe quickly took advantage to dive inside at Turn 2, claiming the final podium place.
HMO’s Tom Oliphant saw this and completed a near carbon-copy move on the very next lap at the same place, putting his Hyundai up into fourth.
But Soutar, who was following in close quarters, couldn’t do the same and followed D’Alberto for the remainder of the race.
Victory for Buchan – his second of the season – sees him cut the gap to Soutar in the drivers’ standings to just nine points, with five races left in the 2024 season.
Harris claimed his fourth podium of the season, with O’Keeffe also enjoying his fourth visit to the rostrum this year in third.
Oliphant bagged another fourth, ahead of D’Alberto and Soutar, the latter having fallen just under six seconds behind D’Alberto at the chequered flag.
GRM’s Ryan Casha had been running in seventh until the mid-distance, when his Peugeot slowed on lap eight, seemingly down on power. That meant Wall Racing’s Will Harris could claim seventh, ahead of the brand new Peugeot 308 P51 of Jordan Cox in eighth.
It was a low-key début for the new Peugeot, with Ben Bargwanna in the sister car following in a lowly ninth, as the new chassis seemed to lack the outright pace to get near the front.
Casha eventually finished in 11th and last after falling behind Tufflift Racing’s Glenn Nirwan as well.
Aaron Cameron failed to start the race following a sudden loss of power on the out lap, leaving the GRM driver also potentially facing the prospect of an overnight engine change and subsequent five-place grid penalty for race two as well.
Race two is set to take place on Sunday at 11:55 AEST (01:55 BST, 02:55 CEST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 29:47.2058 | 1:35.763 | 1 | |
| 2 | 74 | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 2.029 | 1:36.277 | 2 | |
| 3 | 11 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 2.713 | 1:36.072 | 3 | |
| 4 | 15 |  |
Tom OLIPHANT | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 6.560 | 1:36.658 | 5 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 7.716 | 1:37.009 | 4 | |
| 6 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 13.327 | 1:37.139 | 6 | |
| 7 | 76 | |
Will HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 16 | 16.955 | 1:37.360 | 8 | |
| 8 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 P51 TCR | 16 | 23.420 | 1:37.886 | 11 | |
| 9 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Hangcha Racing | Peugeot 308 P51 TCR | 16 | 32.548 | 1:37.688 | 12 | |
| 10 | 29 |  |
Glenn NIRWAN | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 38.125 | 1:38.109 | 9 | |
| 11 | 79 | |
Ryan CASHA | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | 1:05.774 | 1:37.509 | 10 | |
| NS | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 7 |