Jordan Cox wins a hectic second race at Bathurst

The second race of TCR Australia’s season finale at Bathurst provided plenty of drama and ended with Jordan Cox driving his Alfa Romeo Giulietta from P16 on the grid to an outstanding victory. 
Dylan O’Keefe’s Renault Mégane and Luke King’s Audi RS 3 LMS shared the front row of the top-ten reversed grid, with Christopher Mies closing the field on his maiden appearance in the series. At the start O’Keefe led while King’s car was squeezed between Brad Shiels’ Hyundai i30 N and Aaron Cameron’s Peugeot 308; the Audi spun off and then limped back to the pits.
During the opening lap, O’Keefe went wide onto the gravel and retired, while Jason Bargwanna and Shiels swapped the first position a couple of times, with Michael Caruso, Cameron and Jay Hanson following in third, fourth and fifth. 
In lap 3, Caruso overtook Jason Bargwanna for second, while Josh Buchan and Ben Bargwanna made contact while fighting for the eighth place and both retired. Moments later Jason Bargwanna’s pace faded and he dropped to sixth behind Jordan Cox.
In lap 7, Shiels slowed, Caruso took the lead with Hanson and Cox making an Alfa Romeo 1-2-3 on top of the race. In the following lap, Cox and Cameron passed Hanson moving up to second and third, while Shiels pitted for new front tyres and Jason Bargwanna advanced to fifth ahead of James Moffat, Nathan Morcom and Zac Soutar.
In lap 10, Cox overtook Caruso for the lead and the latter was also passed by Cameron for P2, while Hanson, Morcom, Soutar and John Martin all pitted for new front tyres.
In lap 13, Caruso went off from third with a flat front tyre and his Alfa Romeo sank into the gravel prompting the safety car into action.
Racing resumed for a last lap, with Cox chased by Cameron, Jason Bargwanna and Moffat; Cox held onto the lead and claimed his third victory of the season, beating Race 1 winner Cameron by half-a-second, Jason Bargwanna completed the podium, while Mies passed Moffat for P4. 
These results meant that Cameron and Cox moved up to second and third in the standings ahead of King.
The third and last race is scheduled for 14:00 local time (04:00 CET) on Saturday. 

Bathurst – Race 2
1. Jordan Cox (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta), 17 laps
2. Aaron Cameron (Team Valvoline GRM, Peugeot 308), 0.5693
3. Jason Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308), 1.7994
4. Christopher Mies (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2.8382
5. James Moffat (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS), 3.1948

Championship points
1. C. Mostert 486; 2. A. Cameron 407; 3. J. Cox 384 

Picture: TCR Australia/Jack Martin