Cameron wins TCR Race 1 in wild finish

Aaron Cameron has won Race 1 of Round 6 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series in a wild finish at a wet Sandown.

After two Safety Car periods, the Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot driver came under attack from Jay Hanson in a single-lap dash to the chequered flag.

Hanson went for a dive at the esses which mark the end of the back straight and both ran wide, onto the tarred run-off area.

However, while Cameron was able to send the #18 308 across the grass and press on at Dandenong Road, the #9 Audi RS 3 LMS of Hanson swapped ends and eventually came to rest with light contact against an infield fence.

His Melbourne Performance Centre team-mate Will Brown therefore inherited second in the #999 Audi, ahead of Zac Soutar (Honda) and series leader Tony D’Alberto (Honda), who had fended off an attack from Josh Buchan (Hyundai) back at Turn 1 when the second and final restart came.

Race start was moved forward to 15:35 local time/AEST, marking the first session since the Saturday programme at Sandown had to be suspended due to heavy rain and standing water around Sandown.

Luke King (Hyundai) made a slow getaway from the second row due to what turned out to be a driveshaft failure as Cameron led the field down to Turn 1, with Brown taking up second spot.

Just behind them, pole-sitter Hanson, Soutar, and D’Alberto ran three-wide in a jostle for third place despite the shocking conditions, but all emerged unscathed as they negotiated the first corner.

Cameron led by a full second at the end of the standing lap but Brown quickly reeled him in and was applying significant pressure to Car #18 by the end of Lap 4.

A reprieve came in the form of a Safety Car on Lap 5, in response to Cameron’s fellow GRM Peugeot driver Dylan O’Keeffe coming to a halt next to the back straight with a technical problem.

Soutar had retained fourth spot up to that point but the yellow flags allowed him to close up a deficit to the leading bunch of three seconds by the time the restart came on Lap 8.

Hanson gained a spot almost immediately when he went down the inside of the #999 Audi of Brown at Turn 2, before Michael Caruso (Alfa Romeo) passed D’Alberto for fifth at Turn 1 on Lap 9.

Another Safety Car was soon called due to Michael Clemente running off at Turn 1 and bogging his Honda, by which time Caruso had already dropped back to seventh, behind D’Alberto and Buchan.

The interruption to competitive running triggered a time-certain finish after just 12 laps, leading to the wild, 3.1km climax to proceedings.

Behind Cameron, Brown, Zoutar, and D’Alberto finished Buchan in fifth, from Caruso, Jordan Cox (Peugeot), Bailey Sweeny (Hyundai), James Moffat (Renault), and Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot), the latter of whom will start Race 2 from first position due to the grid inversion.

Hanson, O’Keeffe, and King were DNFs in what started as an 18-car field.

Race 2, another 22-lapper, will be held tomorrow from 12:55 local time/AEST at the Sandown round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships.

Stan Sport’s live and ad-free streaming of Sunday’s action kicks off at 10:30 AEST.

Results: Race 1

Series points