Sweeny conquers Bathurst for maiden TCR race win

Hyundai rookie Bailey Sweeny has become the sixth different race winner of the 2022 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series, charging to victory in Race 2 at Mount Panorama.

Having started on the front-row in the reverse top 10 grid race, Sweeny took the chequered flag with a 11.4742s buffer – but he didn’t exactly have it handed to him on a platter in the early going.

Michael Caruso got his elbows out to keep the lead on the first run through Hell Corner, contact dropping Sweeny to third behind Tony D’Alberto.

He lost a further spot to James Moffat before rebounding to second amid a chaotic opening lap.

By the end of Lap 2, he was into the lead and soon began stretching his legs.

The focus quickly turned to the battle packs behind, with Moffat hanging onto second as Josh Buchan nabbed third from Caruso on the final lap.

Dylan O’Keeffe was the lead Peugeot in fifth, while D’Alberto could only bring it home sixth with his Honda struggling with an apparent straight-line speed deficit.

He did however extend his points lead, with nearest rivals Will Brown, Zac Soutar, and Jordan Cox finishing 10th, 13th, and 11th respectively.

Race 1 winner Aaron Cameron had an eventful run to ninth, having had incidents with Buchan and Cox along the way.

Even after being pushed wide at Murray’s Corner, Cox made up 10 places having started last following a Race 1 DNF.

Tim Slade was the only non-finisher in Race 2, retiring at the end of the opening lap with a brake problem.

Determined by points accumulated across Races 1 and 2, Moffat will start on pole for the third and final TCR race of the weekend from 10:10 AEST tomorrow.

Results: Race 2