Jay Hanson delivers first victory for new Audi in TCR Australia opener
Melbourne Performance Racing’s Jay Hanson claimed his maiden TCR Australia victory in the opening race at Symmons Plains, beating the HMO Customer Racing duo of Josh Buchan and Nathan Morcom.
Morcom had topped an ultra-tight morning qualifying session from Hanson, with just 0.01s splitting the pair, but 18-year-old Hanson got the jump early on off the line in the race.
From then, Hanson built up a comfortable lead and did not look threatened throughout the 26 laps of the 2.411km Launceston track, taking his first career win by just over five seconds.
Hanson’s victory was also the first worldwide for the new-for-2022 Audi RS 3 TCR, a feat made even more impressive after his team was late to receive the car and its spare parts.
“They got the car and all the spares so late, and they’ve done a great job to get it ready,” Hanson said post-race. “We had a clean start and took it from there.”
Off the line, Morcom appeared to stutter from pole position which gave Hanson a relatively clear run into the first corner.
Buchan slotted into third ahead of 2019 TCR Australia champion Will Brown as the latter made a tardy start from the dirty side of the road.
Brown’s fortunes took a turn for the worse early doors as he dropped behind the fast-starting LMCT Racing Team Renault Mégane of James Moffatt under braking for the penultimate corner before losing out to both Team Valvoline GRM’s Aaron Cameron and Team Soutar Motorsport’s Zac Soutar to seventh after three laps.
Up front, however, Hanson led the way but now from Buchan who had got by team-mate Morcom for second.
Neither of the Hyundai i30 N TCRs proved to be a match for the Audi though, and Hanson duly extended his advantage in the lead to 5.210s by the flag.
The order for the rest of the top 10 remained largely stagnant, although close together as Moffat came home just four-tenths of a second shy of the podium in fourth.
Cameron, Soutar, Brown, the Wall Racing Honda Civic Type-R of Tony D’Alberto and the GRM Peugeot 308TCR of Dylan O’Keefe were all split by just two second at the finish.
The battle for the final place in the top 10 was ferocious throughout, with Royal Purple Racing Honda driver Brad Shiels securing the place and with it, pole position for Sunday’s second race of the weekend.
Shiels fought valiantly with Supercars Australia convert Fabian Coulthard, the latter on his first outing with the Wall Racing team, and Michael Caruso in the Ashley Seward Alfa Romeo.
The trio could not be separated all race, with Shiels only making sure of the position after Coulthard ran too deep at the hairpin entering the final stages.
Race 2 at Symmons Plains is scheduled to take place on Sunday at 14:25 local time (04:24 CET).
