Jordan Cox claims maiden win for new Peugeot P51 308 TCR
Jordan Cox claimed a maiden victory for the new Garry Rogers Motorsport-built Peugeot P51 308 TCR in the second TCR Australia race of the weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Audi driver Glenn Nirwan started from the reversed grid pole position but got a slow start which handed Peugeot 308TCR driver Ben Bargwanna the lead ahead of a fast-starting Cox.
Another fast-starting driver was Aaron Cameron (Peugeot) who started last but made his way up to fourth place before the end of the first lap.
There was an incident on the first lap between championship leader Zac Soutar (Audi) and Brad Harris (Honda) which saw Tony D’Alberto (Honda) being collected.
D’Alberto and Soutar hit the barriers and retired on the spot, with neither of the cars expected to make it back out in time for the third and final race of the weekend – putting a big blow to Soutar’s title hopes.
The incident brought the safety car out for four laps.
Cox managed to get past his GRM team-mate Bargwanna for the lead on lap five, with Cameron making the move for second place on the next lap.
But Cameron was then hit by Hyundai driver Tom Oliphant which dropped him down to finish sixth while Oliphant had to retire due to damage sustained in the incident.
Cox then had to defend the lead hard from Lynk & Co driver Dylan O’Keeffe, Will Harris and Race 1 winner Josh Buchan.
Buchan was soon able to pass Will Harris for third.
Cox won the race just four tenths ahead of O’Keeffe and eight tenths ahead of Buchan while Will Harris had to settle for fourth.
GRM team-mates Cameron and Bargwanna rounded off the top six.
Buchan’s third place finish has brought him up into the drivers’ championship lead.
The third and final race starts at 15:25 local time/06:25 CEST.