Jay Hanson recovers to claim victory in Phillip Island Race 1

Jay Hanson claimed his second TCR Australia victory of the season in the opening race of the weekend at Phillip Island, after fighting back from a poor getaway at the start.

The AWC MPC Racing Audi driver fended off the Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308TCR of Jordan Cox in a competitive 16-lap affair, having initially lost out to the fast-starting Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Michael Caruso off the line.

Hanson swept back ahead of Caruso at the start of the second lap and was never headed thereafter. He fended off a stern challenge from Cox but came home just over a second clear at the finish.

Cox’s GRM Peugeot team-mate Dylan O’Keefe completed the podium in third.
Burson Auto Parts Racing’s Ben Bargwanna will start Sunday’s Race 2 from pole position after finishing 10th in another Peugeot 308TCR.

Polesitter Hanson didn’t get a good launch off the line and fell behind Caruso’s Ashley Seward Giulietta by the first corner. Caruso maintained his advantage until the end of the opening tour before Hanson’s Audi used the slipstream brilliantly down the main straight to cruise around the outside by the time the cars reached Turn 1 for the second time.

Further back, Supercars veterans and Wall Racing Honda team-mates Fabian Coulthard and Tony

D’Alberto spent the majority of the opening lap side-by-side as they disputed seventh place; Coulthard having had a poor start, dropping from third at the start.

Caruso soon came under pressure from the Audi of Liam McAdam and Cox’s Peugeot as Hanson made quick his escape in the lead.

O’Keefe, Zac Soutar and Coulthard joined the queue of drivers trying to make it through on Caruso, but the latter’s race came undone following a tap up the rear from McAdam under braking for Turn 7 on the third lap. Caruso went spinning into the gravel but rejoined at the back of the field.

More contact followed on the next lap, as HMO Customer Racing Hyundai’s Nathan Morcom slammed into the side of the MPC Audi of Will Brown at Turn 7. Morcom later revealed that a power steering failure on his i30 N TCR meant he was helpless in avoiding Brown’s RS 3 LMS TCR.

Hanson’s lead at the front extended to just under three seconds from Cox, who was elevated to second place following a penalty for McAdam, while O’Keefe ran third ahead of Coulthard.

Cox began to trim Hanson’s lead in the second half of the race but couldn’t carve enough of a margin out of the Audi in the lead to challenge for the victory.

Hanson duly came home to take his second win of the season, with O’Keefe some four seconds adrift to claim the final spot on the podium.

Behind the top three, Coulthard was left to rue his poor start after a strong remainder of the race netted him fourth ahead of Soutar.

The drive of the race came from Peugeot’s Aaron Cameron, who surged from 16th on the grid to finish a sensational sixth. The 2021 series runner-up made a superb start to leap four positions to 12th on the opening lap and ran inside the top 10 before half-distance.

With the Peugeot 308TCR performing well on the fast-flowing circuit, Cameron managed to pick off three more cars by the finish to set himself up nicely for the partially reversed grid Race 2 on Sunday.
D’Alberto was seventh with Lachlan Mineef and Michael Clemente following behind.

A late overtake on Bailey Sweeny gave Bargwanna the vital 10th place finish to secure pole position for Race but had to fend off both the Hyundai and the charging Renault Mégane of James Moffat in the closing laps.
Race 2 is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 13:05 AET (03:05 CET).