George Miedecke has taken his first race win in Gulf Western Oils Touring Car Masters, in the conclusion to Round 1 at a wet Sydney Motorsport Park.
Race 2 was officially cancelled due to flooding of parts of the circuit caused by overnight rain, meaning the starting grid for Race 3 was taken from the results of Race 1.
Miedecke swept from the outside of the front row to put his Chevrolet Camaro RS into the lead at the first corner, before Steven Johnson tried to round up John Bowe for second spot at Bond Bend (Turn 2).
Johnson filed back into third, while Marcus Zukanovic passed Ryan Hansford for fourth position on the run to Turn 6 as the field battled for grip.
Miedecke stretched the lead over the Holden Torana of Bowe to 1.8s after three laps, just before Johnson passed the six-time TCM series winner into Moffat Corner (Turn 1).
When Bowe ended up wide of the line at Bond Bend on Lap 5, both Zukanovic and Hansford capitalised, and they would soon catch up to Johnson’s #17 XD Falcon.
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However, Zukanovic found himself dropping a spot to Hansford when the #71 XD Falcon broke into a slide through the final corner on Lap 6, as Miedecke stretched his margin at the head of the field to 5.7s.
Hansford drove his Torana past Johnson on Lap 7 and started to chip away at Miedecke’s advantage, but ran out of laps to catch the #85 Whiteline Racing entry.
Miedecke was 4.7s up when the chequered flag flew after eight laps of racing, a result which also saw him win the round and thus take the early series lead.
Hansford finished second, from Johnson, Zukanovic, and Jamie Tilley (Ford Mustang), with Bowe fading to sixth in the end after claiming victory in the Trophy Race and Race 1.
The TCM field is set to return to Sydney Motorsport Park on May 27-29 for Round 2 of the season, with the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships.
In Aussie Racing Cars, Cody Brewczynski pipped Tom Hayman to victory in Race 4 of Round 1.
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