Sweeny consolidates TCR points lead with Round 3 win

Bailey Sweeny’s victory in Race 3 aboard his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30N enhanced his recently acquired points lead in the fifth round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Sandown.

Sweeny trailed Aaron Cameron (Peugeot 308), who made a blinding start from the second row to lead for the first seven of the 21-lap race. Sweeny swooped through to the lead at Turn 1 and was never headed from that point to finish 3.3s ahead of Cameron.

For much of the race, Zac Soutar and Lachlan Mineeff duked it out for third spot in their Audis, but it came to a head at Turn 10 and 11 on Lap 18 when the two clashed. Soutar went off and stopped past the start/finish line with damage. Mineeff was able to continue for another two laps until a puncture, triggered by the clash, put him out.

Behind that duo, Jordan Cox (Peugeot) was under continued pressure from Tony D’Alberto (Honda FK7), with the former copping a bad sportsmanship warning for allegedly blocking, and a hairy moment came later when they clashed at Turn 2. That saw Michael Clemente (Cupra Leon Comp), who had progressed from 10th to be right behind, slip between them into sixth.

The three-way scrap wasn’t resolved until the final lap when Cox had a bad exit from Turn 4 and was passed by Clemente on the back straight. D’Alberto also slipped past and relegated Clemente at Turn 6 to nab an unlikely third place.

Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) finished just behind Cox and in front of Josh Buchan (Hyundai Elantra), Tom Oliphant (Lynk & Co) and Kody Garland (Peugeot) who spun twice, firstly at Turn 9 and later at Turn 1.

Clay Richards was the final finisher, several laps behind after a pitstop to rectify a blown boost hose. Iain McDougall was the only non-finisher after making his way into the pits after his Audi lost gears with an upshift drama.

At the next round of TCR Australia, the field will be bolstered with the Kumho TCR World Tour round at Race Sydney at Sydney Motorsport Park on November 3-4 before heading to Bathurst less than a week later.