A superb start where he went straight to the lead, was all Rob Huff need to win Race 3 of the combine Kumho TCR World Tour and Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The 2012 World Touring Car Champion never faulted as he held off the winner of the two previous races Will Brown, and gradually edged away for an Audi RS3 LMS clean sweep of wins.
“I wasn’t going to let Will get that one,” Huff said. “I felt that that I was more used to the track in that last race.”
The grid was determined on the combined results from Races 1 and 2 with Brown on pole and Huff alongside and ahead of Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai Elantra), Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co), Aaron Cameron (Peugeot 308), Mikel Azcona (Elantra), Sweeney and Buchan in Hyundais as well.
Despite being tardy off the line where Huff and Michelisz went ahead, Brown was handed a 5s penalty. In the meantime, Cameron was fired off at Turn 1 at high speed due to contact with Vervisch.
Brown was able to get by Michelisz shortly after and chased Huff for the duration of the 17 laps. In the end Brown with his penalty, was relegated to third.
Fourth went to Vervisch ahead of Buchan who was second best of the Aussies. The next eight were covered by 2s where Azcona won out over Ehrlacher and Girolami (Honda Civic). Ma Qing Hua was in front of his teammate Ehrlacher until contact between the pair at Turn 2 cost the Chinese driver.
He was just in front of Tony D’Alberto (Honda Civic), Bailey Sweeney (Hyundai), Santiago Urrutia and Tom Oliphant in their Lynk & Cos. In 14th Lachlan Mineeff (Audi) finished ahead of Thed Bjork (Lynk & Co) while Jordan Cox (Peugeot) won his race long dice over Zac Soutar (Audi).
Cameron recovered to finish ahead of Brad Harris (Honda), Jimmy Clairet (Peugeot), Iain McDougall (Audi) and Will Harris who lost places with an off at Turn 1. Ben Bargwanna had the turbo replaced between races but the problem persisted, and he had another DNF.