Cox wins bruising TCR Race 2 at Symmons Plains

Jordan Cox has won a bruising Race 2 in Round 1 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Symmons Plains.

James Moffat and Race 1 winner Jay Hanson were DNFs after a clash which put the former into the pit wall, and that was but one of many elbows-out battles in a shortened, 19-lap affair.

In the end, Cox took victory in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 after holding off debutant Bailey Sweeny in an HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N, while Tony D’Alberto survived a last-lap dive from Will Brown to finish third.

Cox and team-mate Aaron Cameron had shared the front row as a result of the inversion of the top 10 from Qualifying 2, and they banged doors all the way to the exit of Turn 2.

Cox prevailed in that battle and then Cameron pitted from second position at the end of the standing lap with what turned out to be a turbo issue, namely a stray intercooler pipe, for the #18 Peugeot.

That promoted D’Alberto to second and Sweeny to third, before the latter went down the inside of the Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R at the Hairpin on Lap 2.

Moffat, meanwhile, had moved up to fourth position but was coming under pressure from Brown (Audi), and that would precipitate a sizeable incident on Lap 5.

Brown got down the inside at Turn 6 and while that was clean enough, his Melbourne Performance Centre team-mate Jay Hanson attempted to also put a move on Moffat as they rounded Turn 7.

Multiple hits between the new #9 Audi and Moffat’s #34 Renault ensued, putting the latter into the tyre barrier which lines pit wall, and Hanson out of the race also.

Cox had only just managed to stay ahead of Sweeny by the time the Safety Car was called on Lap 6, before green flags waved again on Lap 15.

Sweeny continued to apply pressure to Cox but could not find a way past and took the chequered flag in second position.

Brown did manage to fire his #999 Audi RS 3 down the inside of the D’Alberto Honda at what would be the second-last corner of the race, but could not make the move stick.

Instead, he found himself kicking up the dust exiting Turn 7 and then only just beat Josh Buchan (Hyundai) to the line to salvage fourth position.

Behind Buchan in fifth at the end were Zac Soutar (Honda), Dylan O’Keeffe (Peugeot), Brad Shiels (Hyundai), Michael Caruso (Alfa Romeo), and Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot).

Nathan Morcom finished 13th after pitting for what appeared to be some bodywork repairs for the #11 HMO Hyundai entry, and Fabian Coulthard was 14th in the Stan Sport Honda.

Cameron reached the chequered flag five laps down and was not classified a finisher, with Lachlan Mineeff also a DNF due to a drive problem for his Volkswagen.

Race 3 starts this afternoon at 16:20 local time/AEDT and will be streamed live on Stan Sport.

Results: Race 2