Hanson wins TCR Race 2 after Caruso heartbreak

Jay Hanson has won Race 2 of Round 5 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Queensland Raceway after Michael Caruso’s Alfa Romeo failed while leading.

Caruso was almost three seconds to the good when the Ashley Seward Motorsport Giulietta Veloce came to a halt less than three laps from home, having not long started to blow smoke.

Will Brown inherited top spot, but soon had it prised off him by fellow Melbourne Performance Centre team-mate Hanson in the newer of their two Audi RS 3 LMS machines.

They were separated by 1.7731s when the chequered flag flew after 21 laps, with Luke King third at almost four seconds further back in his Hyundai i30 N.

Caruso had been alone at the head of the grid as a result of post-Race 1 penalties, the top 10 inversion, and the fact that Lachlan Mineeff (Audi) had to start from pit lane due to a missing timing transponder.

Even so, Michael Clemente (Honda) made himself a threat from the second row when the lights went out, but got hung wide through Turn 1 then touched the dirt exiting Turn 2 and ceded more positions.

Brown emerged second and Jordan Cox (Peugeot) passed King for third at Turn 4, with Hanson fifth, Clemente sixth, and Race 1 winner Tony D’Alberto (Honda) up from 10th to seventh by the end of the standing lap.

Caruso was under heavy pressure from Brown in the early stages while Hanson came from a considerable way back at Turn 4 to pass King for fourth on Lap 6.

Two laps later, Hanson pulled off an even more impressive move at that same corner when he sold a dummy on Cox.

Cox lost momentum as he tried to fight back, allowing King to go past as they ran up Dick Johnson Straight to commence Lap 9.

D’Alberto got underneath Clemente at the start of Lap 14 and that incentivised Zac Soutar to also join in to what was thus a three-way Honda battle for sixth spot.

The series leader completed the move at Turn 2, with both Soutar and James Moffat (Renault) following him past the #15 Civic Type R by the time they reached the Turn 3 braking zone.

Meanwhile, Caruso had shaken Brown, stretching his margin beyond a full second on Lap 9 and past two on Lap 14.

However, Car #10 was soon sighted blowing smoke and while the ASM team reportedly thought it to be a minor issue as they watched on, that would prove to not be the case.

He stopped on Lap 19 and Brown assumed the lead but had a rapid Hanson, who had already set a new lap record, right behind him by then.

The Erebus Academy driver shaped for a move at the Erebus Supercars Championship full-timer barely half a lap later at Turn 6, but was forced all the way over to drivers’ right as they dragged up Dick Johnson Straight.

They continued side-by-side until Hanson finally made the move stick at Turn 3 and he cleared out in the lap-and-a-half which remained.

Behind Brown and King was Cox in fourth, from D’Alberto, Soutar, and Moffat, the latter from the ninth and final row of the grid.

Clemente got home in eighth, ahead of Josh Buchan (Hyundai) and Nathan Morcom (Hyundai).

Dylan O’Keeffe’s title hopes took another big hit when he had to retire with suspected radiator damage.

Team-mate Aaron Cameron fared little better, finishing two laps down in 16th due to a possible turbo-related issue in yet another Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot.

In the series, D’Alberto’s margin has been snipped to 46 points over Cox, with Hanson up to third at 54 points off the pace and O’Keeffe slipping to fourth.

Race 3, another 21-lapper, is scheduled for this afternoon at 16:10 local time/AEST and will be streamed live on Stan Sport.

Results: Race 2

Series points