Clemente beats Sweeny to Winton TCR win

Michael Clemente has driven his Cupra to a lights-to-flag victory in Race 1 at Winton after seeing off pressure from Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series leader Bailey Sweeny.

Carl Cox Motorsport’s Clemente won by just over a second in the 18-lap contest after scoring a career-first pole position earlier in the day at the Shannons SpeedSeries event.

He got the jump from first on the grid and led Josh Buchan (Hyundai i30 N Sedan), Sweeny (Hyundai i30 N), and Zac Soutar (Audi RS 3 LMS) through the opening corners.

Aaron Cameron had a slow getaway from sixth on the grid and was nearly at the back of the field when he made contact with fellow Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot driver Kody Garland at Turn 1.

That sent Garland’s 308 into a spin, before Cameron found himself off-track on Lap 2.

There was a battle between HMO Customer Racing team-mates going on for second also, with Sweeny looking to round up Buchan on Lap 3 at Turn 10 after Car #30 had touched the grass exiting Turn 9.

He eventually completed the move and Soutar was able to capitalise by slipping under Buchan at Turn 12, to move into third spot.

Jordan Cox (Peugeot) lurked just behind, having almost turned 2022 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series winner Tony D’Alberto (Honda Civic Type R) around as he forced his way past on the opening lap, while Clemente benefited from the HMO stoush by skipping to more than two-and-a-half seconds clear of the rest in his Cupra Leon Competicion.

UPDATE: Cox penalised

Sweeny pegged the gap back to 1.5s over the next seven laps, as Cox continued to closely pursue Buchan for fourth position.

Meanwhile, running almost two laps down in last position, Cameron was clocked at a 1:22.0706s on his ninth tour of Winton Motor Raceway, more than two seconds under Will Brown’s lap record of 1:24.3718s from the category’s first round in rural Victoria in 2019.

UPDATE: Car #18 fastest lap invalidated

With five laps remaining, Clemente’s margin over Sweeny had been whittled down to 0.8s, while Soutar ran around six seconds off the pace in third spot.

The series leader continued to stalk the pole-sitter until he had a moment on the penultimate lap and the gap jumped back beyond a full second.

Clemente won by an official margin of 1.1881s over Sweeney, with Soutar finishing another 7.2447s back in third.

Buchan was a similarly distant fourth, and few tenths of a second ahead of Cox, followed by D’Alberto, Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot), Lachlan Mineeff (Audi), Clay Richards (Audi), and Tom Oliphant (Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce), with the latter thus set to start from first position in Race 2.

The rest of the classification in Race 1 was Iain McDougall (Audi), Garland, Brad Harris (Honda), and Cameron.

Race 2 of Round 3 of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia, another 18-lapper, starts tomorrow at 12:30 local time/AEST.

Australian viewers can watch the SpeedSeries live and ad-free on Stan Sport, while international viewers can see the action for free on Speedcafe.

Results: Race 1 Updated

Series points Updated