Josh Buchan stays as the top Australian while Eric Gené shines

Reigning TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan made progress in the KUMHO TCR World Ranking this week after a pair of podiums at the championship’s season opener at Sandown Raceway, while a pair of podiums for Eric Gené in the TCR Spain Pre-season Series saw the Spaniard climbing an incredible 210 positions this weekend.

Buchan made a four-position climb to move up to 32nd overall of the 1,000+ ranked drivers and is now ten points clear of his TCR Australia rival Tony D’Alberto, whose podium in Race 1 helped him to gain two spots this weekend.

It was Clay Richards who was the highest climber from the series, moving up 108 places thanks in part to his hard-fought podium in Race 2 at Sandown in his Carl Cox Motorsport CUPRA Leon, battling to the finish with Jordan Cox’s GRM Peugeot. John Martin was technically the highest climber, though the Wall Racing Honda driver had dropped to zero points after two years off the grid, and so his 193-place climb was more of a re-entry.

The highest climber across all events however was Eric Gené, son of ETCR star Jordi, now competing in a national TCR competition for the first time. Gené was driving a Monlau Motorsport’s CUPRA, and he stunned with pole position on Saturday, which he converted into second place in Race 1, and then managed third in the reversed grid second race and has moved up to 452nd overall.

Picture: TCR Australia