Hanson claims TCR pole at wet Sandown

Audi steerer Jay Hanson has qualified on pole position for Round 6 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at a wet Sandown.

The Melbourne Performance Centre driver finished three tenths up on the field at the end of Qualifying 2 and is set to share the front row with Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Aaron Cameron, while series leader Tony D’Alberto put his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R sixth on the grid.

An incident during Qualifying 1 meant that there was a relatively long hold before cars got back onto the track for Q2, and hence what dry line had formed was made wet again as rain continued to fall in Melbourne’s southeast.

Still, Hanson came out and immediately punched out a 1:22.2299s in the #9 RS 3 LMS, which had him a full sixth tenths to the good after the first flying laps in that 10-minute stanza.

Luke King moved to second with a 1:22.5276s in his Hyundai i30 N next time through, but Cameron proved to be the man to watch in the closing stages.

He crept up to fourth with a 1:22.8713s in the eighth minute before improving to a 1:22.5276s in his last lap before the chequered flag in the #18 308.

However, a small slide on his final lap put paid to his chances of denying Hanson a second career Supercheap Auto TCR Australia pole position, while King ended up third and Zac Soutar (Honda) fourth on the 1:22.8400s which he clocked at the start of the session.

Will Brown nearly bent his own MPC Audi on the fence when he straddled the Turn 3 exit kerb early in Q1 and he shortcut that complex in Q2, during which he set a 1:22.9783s which was good enough for fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were D’Alberto on a 1:23.1530s, from Dylan O’Keeffe (Peugeot), Michael Caruso (Alfa Romeo), Bailey Sweeny (Hyundai), and Josh Buchan (Hyundai).

Back, in Qualifying 1, Hanson set the pace on a 1:22.5231s while Nathan Morcom was 10th-quickest halfway through the 15-minute hit-out when he ran straight off at Turn 1 and nudged the tyre wall at the far end of the gravel trap in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai.

The incident triggered a red flag from which the session would not restart, meaning Morcom was stripped of his best lap of 1:23.8889s and dropped to 13th, promoting Soutar to 10th.

Still trapped on the outside, however, were the likes of Jordan Cox (Peugeot) in 11th and James Moffat (Renault) at the very rear of the 18-car field.

Race 1, scheduled for 22 laps, is due to get underway at 16:20 local time/AEST at the Sandown round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships.

The event is being streamed live and ad-free on Stan Sport now.

Results: Qualifying 2

Results: Qualifying 1