In his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30N TCR, Buchan grabbed the lead at Turn 4 on the first lap of the shortened event and led from there. He was 4.5s ahead when the chequered flag was waved.

For most of the race, Zac Soutar (Tufflift Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR) fended off Brad Harris (Honda Wall Racing Honda Civic RFL5). However, on the last lap, Harris out braked Soutar at MG corner and took second away from the series points leader.

Harris’ teammate Tony D’Alberto led from the start, but was bumped off at Turn 4 in an awkward exchange when Buchan went down the inside of Harris in his bid for second.

Dylan O’Keeffe (Ashley Seward Motorsport Lynk & Co CO 03 TCR) held fourth and was right on the back of the podium place getters.

Fifth was a battle between Clay Richards (CUPRA Leon Competicion) and Ben Bargwanna (GRM Peugeot 308 TCR). The two swapped positions on more than one occasion before Bargwanna was able to consolidate the position.

Just behind and lurking to get by, was Ryan Casha (Peugeot). Tom Oliphant (Hyundai) was next, able to retrieve eighth after he lost it briefly to Aaron Cameron (Peugeot). The latter had a moment at Turn 4 early in the piece which dropped him to tenth behind teammate Jordan Cox.

Cox had a misfire during qualifying, dropped to 10th when Cameron was able to pass him, and then lost a chance to start the Race 2 reverse top 10 from pole, when Will Harris (Honda) relegated him to 11th.

Next was Glenn Nirwan (Audi) ahead of newcomer Jude Bargwanna (Alfa Romeo Giulietta) while D’Alberto recovered and soldiered on to round out the field.

There will be two races on Sunday with the reverse top 10 outing at 1:25pm AEST and the third at 4:10pm.