A seventh and a sixth on Sunday at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International was enough for the Hyundai star to take the title by 18 points over Tufflift Racing’s Zac Soutar in his Audi RS3.
“I get to drive and am a small cog who gets the glory,” Buchan said as he paid special tribute to engineer Rob Benson who is leaving the team.
Soutar finished third in both races as well as a point-earning fastest lap in the last to be able the reduce the deficit from 36 points by half.
The round was won by Dylan O’Keeffe in the Ash Seward Motorsport Lynk & Co CO. He came to Bathurst ninth in the standings and went away fourth behind Brad Harris (Wall Racing Honda Civic R FL5).
O’Keeffe won the final race of the season, narrowly ahead of Tom Oliphant (Hyundai).
Behind Soutar, Ryan Casha (Peugeot P51 308) finished fourth ahead of Will Harris (Honda), Buchan, Brad Harris, Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot), Blake Knowles (Audi) and a distant last Jordan Cox, who had to do an early reset in his Peugeot.
Cox took out the dramatic reverse top 10 Race 2 over Will Harris who put in a stunning drive while Oliphant held off O’Keeffe to finish third.
Harris stalled on the grid while Brad Harris had contact with Casha as they charged up the Mountain. Casha then tagged Knowles who was spun around.
Teammates Bargwanna and Cox vied for the lead into Turn 2 and it was the latter who emerged in front. Bargwanna’s Peugeot had an oil pressure light illuminate and he parked it safely at the Cutting on Lap 4.
Will Harris readily made up the deficit from the start and pulled off an audacious move on Casha out of the Cutting with Oliphant equally bold when he overtook the Peugeot drivers before the Grate.
Casha would also lose out to O’Keeffe but was able to hold off title combatants Soutar and Buchan. The latter finish ahead of his rival but had a five-second penalty for a false start. Aaron Cameron who failed to start Race 1 was again a non-starter without the spares to fix his new car.
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