Sweeny fastest in incident-shortened TCR Practice 1 at Sandown

Hyundai driver Bailey Sweeny has set the pace in a crash-shortened opening practice session for Round 6 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Sandown.

Sweeny went as quick as a 1:14.7623s in the #130 HMO Customer Racing entry, finishing the session 0.1279s up on another Erebus Academy driver in Jay Hanson, who ended up second in a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3 LMS.

Rounding out the top five were Josh Buchan in another HMO Hyundai i30 N, from Aaron Cameron in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 and Michael Caruso in the Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce, while series leader Tony D’Alberto was 11th-quickest on a 1:15.5467s in his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R.

MPC Audi team-mates Will Brown and Hanson set the pace initially before Cameron went sub-75s with a 1:14.9726s in the 11th minute.

However, Sweeny had wheeled his Hyundai to a 1:14.7623s just before he brought an end to his first run, and he would get little more track time after that.

A red flag was called in the 20th minute after Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) hit the fence at Dandenong Road, and the session would ultimately be called with just over five minutes of the allotted 30 remaining.

Buchan was thus locked into third on a 1:14.9116s, just 0.0214s behind Hanson, with Cameron’s best being the aforementioned 1:14.9s and Caruso going as quick as a 1:15.0680s.

The rest of the top 10 was Lachlan Mineeff (Audi), Brown, Nathan Morcom (Hyundai), Luke King (Hyundai), and Zac Soutar (Honda).

Practice 2, another half-hour session, starts this afternoon at 14:40 local time/AEST.

Stan Sport’s live and ad-free coverage of the Sandown round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships starts tomorrow at 11:00 AEST.

Results: Practice 1