Buchan, Hanson and Morcom share honours at Sydney
Josh Buchan, Jay Hanson and Nathan Morcom won one apiece in TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsport Park. In the first two races, Buchan and Hanson claimed lights-to-flag wins starting from the pole, while Morcom won Race 3 from his teammate Buchan. Despite finishing 17th in the third race, following an incident, Tony D’Alberto retained the leadership in the standings, 24 points clear of Dylan O’Keeffe.
Saturday night, Buchan started Race 1 from the pole, while Morcom was demoted from second to seventh on the grid due to an engine change. Buchan led, while Will Brown took a poor start and was jumped by Aaron Cameron and Jordan Cox. By lap 4, Brown recovered the second place, but in lap 6 he retired with a broken front suspension. The fight for the 10th position, that was worth the pole for Race 2, saw Kody Garland and Fabian Coulthard making contact and then Michael Caruso pitting with a flat front tyre. Buchan won from a trio of Peugeot cars – Cameron, Cox and O’Keeffe – while Hanson finished tenth.
Hanson and Brad Shiels filled the front row of the top-ten reversed grid and they led at the start from D’Alberto and Luke King. Hanson maintained the lead despite the advances of D’Alberto, who tangled with King as Shiels also remained in play. Once the race had settled, D’Alberto dropped positions to King and Morcom to sit fourth. Hanson led from start-to-finish in his repaired Audi after Bathurst; he won by a 1.8-second margin over King as Morcom followed in third ahead of D’Alberto.
Cox had the pole for Race 3 and made a good start, but during the first lap he was passed by Morcom and King. The leading pair built a gap, while Buchan passed Hanson for P4, then Cox for P3 and closed the gap to the leaders. In lap 11, Buchan overtook King for second and the latter lost third to Cox in the penultimate lap. Morcom and Buchan cruised to the end, securing a 1-2 finish for HMO Customer Racing, with Cox third ahead of King, O’Keeffe and Brown who passed Hanson for P6.
The next event will be at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway, August 5/7.
Sydney – Race 1
1. Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 13 laps
2. Aaaron Cameron (Team Valvoline GRM, Peugeot 308), 0.9572
3. Jordan Cox (Swyftx GRM, Peugeot 308), 1.2089
Sydney – Race 2
1. Jay Hanson (AWC MPC Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 16 laps
2. Luke King (Dash Sport, Hyundai i30 N), 1.8301
3. Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 3.4047
Sydney – Race 3
1. Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 17 laps
2. Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 0.5634
3. Jordan Cox (Swyftx GRM, Peugeot 308), 5.0204
Championship points
1. T. D’Alberto, 412 pts; 2. D. O’Keeffe 388; 3. J. Buchan 379
Picture: TCR Australia/Jack Martin
