Jordan Cox takes TCR Australia Race 2 win after safety car restart
Swyftx GRM’s Jordan Cox claimed victory in a stop-start second TCR Australia race of the weekend at Symmons Plains, beating Bailey Sweeny by just under half a second.
Cox led from pole position either side of a lengthy safety car intervention to come home for the win, while Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto staved off a spirited challenge from 2019 champion Will Brown to secure the final place on the podium in third.
Off the start, pole-sitter Cox went toe-to-toe with fellow front-row starter Aaron Cameron into the first corner, with the Peugeot coming out on top on the opening lap.
Cameron’s race took a turn for the worse when he was forced into the pits at the end of the first tour, leaving Cox in the lead and promoting the Hyundai of Bailey Sweeny into second.
Sweeny showed terrific early pace and was about to challenge Cox for the lead of the race under braking for the hairpin on the seventh lap 26 before the safety car was deployed for an incident between James Moffat and Race 1 winner Jay Hanson.
The pair had been disputing fifth place when Hanson tried to sneak his Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS3 TCR up the inside of Moffat’s Renault Mégane at the final corner.
Hanson clipped Moffat’s rear on exit, sending the Renault heavily into the pitwall while the Audi limped as far as turn two with broken front right suspension. With both out of the race, the safety car came out, bunching the pack up for a lengthy period.
Upon resumption, Cox led again off the restart from Sweeny for the remainder of the race, with just under half a second splitting the two leaders until the chequered flag.
The best battle in the second half of the race came courtesy of former and current full-time Supercars drivers D’Alberto and Brown for third place.
Brown, driving Chaz Mostert’s championship winning Audi from last season, ran sixth early on before making his way past the Hyundai of Josh Buchan at the hairpin. After the safety car restart, Brown was fourth and had superior speed to D’Alberto’s Wall Racing Honda Civic Type-R in front.
But Brown couldn’t quite find the opportunity to make the pass for the final place on the podium, instead having to take to the grass out of the final corner and on the run to the flag, as D’Alberto made his car as wide as possible.
Buchan was a solid fifth in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR, ahead of Zac Soutar’s Honda.
Close behind this pair was the Peugeot 308TCR of Dylan O’Keefe in seventh, with the Schaeffler GRM driver just finishing ahead of the Tilton Racing Hyundai of Brad Shiels.
Completing the top 10 was the Alfa Romeo of Michael Caruso and the Honda of Ben Barwanna.
The final race of the weekend is scheduled to take place at 16:20 local time (06:20 CET).
