Josh Buchan takes title as Cox, O’Keeffe share Bathurst wins

Josh Buchan has become the first driver to secure the TCR Australia title for a second time after seeing off the challenge of Zac Soutar over the final two races of the campaign at Bathurst.

Soutar’s win in the opening race of the weekend on Saturday had brought the gap between the pair down to 28 points, meaning it was still very much advantage to the HMO Customer Racing driver going into the final day of the season.

The second race of the weekend saw newcomers Blake Knowles on pole at the wheel of his Audi, although the Kiwi would see his hopes of a strong result come to an end on the opening lap when he was the innocent party collected after contact between Brad Harris and Ryan Casha.

By that stage, Knowles had already lost the lead of the race as the Peugeots of Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna charged to the front from the second and third row of the grid, aided by the fact that Will Harris had stalled from alongside Knowles on the front row of the grid.

Bargwanna was forced to park his car on the fourth lap after an oil pressure warning alarm came on in the new Peugeot, which left Cox free to take a second win in as many weekends at the wheel of the P51 308 TCR.

Behind however, second place was very much a surprise name as Will Harris completed a remarkable comeback from his issue at the start to charge from the back of the grid to take second spot in the Wall Racing Honda.

The undoubted highlight came with less than three minutes left on the clock when a charging Harris overhauled Tom Oliphant’s Hyundai for third spot and then set about immediately trying to clear Casha’s Peugeot.

Harris tried to make a move around the outside at the Cutting and rather than settle in behind when he couldn’t clear his rival, instead elected to go side-by-side up through Griffin’s Mount.

Despite being part of the circuit where overtaking is far from easy – or expected – Harris was able to sweep through to take second spot, with Oliphant seeing the opportunity to also nip ahead of Casha and steal third spot.

Dylan O’Keeffe also got ahead of Casha before the finish to take fourth spot, with the top six behind that that squabble being rounded out by Buchan – who extended his lead over Soutar in the process.

The Audi man chased him home in seventh, with Brad Harris the final finisher after pitting to have damaged picked up in the lap one incident repaired.

The race two result meant Buchan took a 29 point lead into the finale with 50 points on offer, and although Soutar lined up on pole, the Hyundai driver knew that he just needed to stay out of trouble to earn the title.

Soutar briefly retained the lead at the start of the race but then lost his advantage heading into Griffins Bend when side-by-side with the Lynk & Co of O’Keeffe, managing to keep his Audi out of the wall but dropping down the order as a result.

That was be the key moment of the race in terms of the win as O’Keeffe lead from that point on to secure the win, with Soutar forced into a recovery drive through the field in the hope of somehow wrestling the title away from the defending champion.

Soutar drove well to come through the pack to take third spot behind O’Keeffe and Oliphant – setting the fastest lap in the process – but it wasn’t enough to take the title as Buchan stayed out of trouble to bring his Hyundai home to the finish in sixth spot behind Casha and Will Harris.

That gave him the title by 18 points, with back-to-back championship successes for the first driver to win the TCR Australia crown more than once.

It also meant a third title in five seasons for the HMO Customer Racing team, which also took the inaugural championship win back in 2019 with current Supercars points leader Will Brown.