Will Brown has secured pole position for the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at AWC Race Tasmania.
Brown (Audi) set the benchmark in the hotly-contested two-part qualifying session, in claiming his second TCR pole position, topping the timesheets with a 0:56.1782s in Qualifying 2 to secure P1 ahead of Josh Buchan (Hyundai – 0:56.1894s) and Practice 1 pacesetter Bailey Sweeny (Hyundai – 0:56.3137s).
Watch Will Brown and Josh Buchan’s TCR tour pit lane at Symmons Plains here.
Qualifying 1
Brown edged out Sweeny and Zac Soutar (Audi) in the 15-minute Qualifying 1, topping the timesheets with a 0:56.2711s on his fourth lap.
Kody Garland (Peugeot) set the first representative lap of Qualifying 1 with a 0:57.5989s, before Brown went to the top with a 0:56.5363s.
Sweeny vaulted to P1 with a 0:56.6192s, before Brown responded with a 0:56.2711s, as Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) moved up to fifth with a 0:56.7747s.
Buchan moved up to third with a 0:56.6452s, with Zac Soutar (Audi) going up to second with a 0:56.4889s, filing into pit lane after that effort.
Aaron Cameron (Peugeot) recorded a 0:56.5495s to find himself in fourth, before following Soutar into the pits.
The top four of Brown, Sweeny, Soutar and Cameron were in pit lane at the 10-minute mark, with fifth-placed Buchan and sixth-placed Tony D’Alberto (Honda) the top runners out on track at the time.
D’Alberto displaced Buchan for fifth with a 0:56.6452s, with less than three minutes to go in Qualifying 1.
Garland, Tom Oliphant (Alfa Romeo), Michael Clemente (Audi) and Iain McDougall (Audi) were the last of the runners on track in the final minute, with the top eight runners in pit lane.
At the end of the session, Brown, Sweeny, Soutar, Cameron, D’Alberto, Buchan, Bargwanna, Jordan Cox, Garland and Oliphant the top 10, with Clemente, Mineeff and McDougall not progressing to Qualifying 2.
Qualifying 2
Buchan set the first representative time of the 10-minute session with a 0:57.0255s, before D’Alberto went to the top with a 0:56.8872s.
Cameron lapped a 0:56.4619s to go first, before Buchan went to the top with a 0:56.1894s.
Brown went to the top with a 0:56.1782s, ahead of Buchan by 0.0112s.
As less than five minutes remained it was Brown leading from Buchan, Sweeny, D’Alberto, Cameron, Bargwanna, Garland, Cox and Oliphant.
A confident Brown filed into the pits with less than three minutes on the clock to watch the final few minutes unfold, with Buchan, Sweeny, D’Alberto, Cameron, Bargwanna, Garland, Cox and Oliphant completing the top 10.
TCR Australia will return to the track for Race 1 at 16:10 local time/AEDT.