Inaugural Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series winner Will Brown has scored his first victory of his return season, in Race 3 at Sandown.

The Melbourne Performance Centre Audi driver started the Round 6 finale from first on the grid and while he dropped to fourth early on, he gradually regained ground before overtaking Jordan Cox for the lead with nine laps to go.

Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Michael Caruso climbed to second from seventh on the grid in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce, with Cox rounding out the podium in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Megane RS.

However, he made only small inroads in Tony D’Alberto’s series lead after the Wall Racing driver got his Honda Civic Type R home in fifth position despite multiple scares.

The margin between them is now 56 points on the way to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International season finale, with Brown a further 17 in arrears.

The Sandown track surface was still wet for the start and while Brown shared the front row with Zac Soutar (Honda), it was Cox who vaulted into a clear lead from Row 2 on the grid even before they arrived at the first braking zone.

Soutar slotted into second and provisional Race 2 winner Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) third, while Brown took up fourth after contact with Josh Buchan (Hyundai) as they negotiated Turn 1.

Brown reclaimed third position when he went down the inside of Bargwanna exactly three laps later, as Soutar continued to tail Cox at the very front of the field.

Later on Lap 4, Brown had a dive at Dandenong Road and elbowed his way past Soutar, who lost another spot to Bargwanna by the time he got back up to speed.

Almost two seconds separated first placed Cox from the Erebus Motorsport Supercars driver in second place at that point, but the latter was making inroads.

His cause was helped when Cox caught a big slide at Dandenong Road on Lap 7, with the gap between Cars #33 and #999 dropping to virtually nothing.

The GRM driver still kept Brown at bay for several laps but when the Audi RS 3 LMS got alongside at Dandenong Road on Lap 13, Cox was unable to hold on any longer.

By then, Caruso had steadily made his way into the podium places, and he too was starting to reel in the #33 Renault.

While Brown disappeared up the road, Caruso caught Cox by the end of Lap 15 and then made the pass for second place as they accelerated off Turn 4 and up the back straight on Lap 16.

The Alfa Romeo steerer was still more than two seconds away from the race lead at that point and while he was running quicker than Brown, there were not enough laps left to make up the deficit.

The official margin of victory was 1.1527s with Cox fading to a further 8.1538s back, while Buchan finished fourth and D’Alberto fifth.

It could have gone wrong on a number of occasions for the series leader, who nearly had a lose on his own on the Turn 3 exit kerb before a clash with Bailey Sweeny which put the #130 Hyundai i30 N into the saturated outfield as they fought over fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Bargwanna, Sweeny, Dylan O’Keeffe (Peugeot), Jay Hanson (Audi), and James Moffat (Renault).

Race 1 winner Aaron Cameron (Peugeot) did not take the start in Race 3 due to engine damage sustained in the day’s earlier encounter.

The seventh and final round of the season takes place at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International, at Mount Panorama on November 11-13.

The Supercheap Auto Bathurst International will be streamed live and ad-free on Stan Sport.

Results: Race 3

Series points