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Aaron Cameron opens account with Race 2 win at Symmons Plains
A rapid start from Aaron Cameron has set-up his first race win of the season in Race 2 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia season at AWC Race Tasmania.
Cameron prevailed after a close battle between Lachlan Mineeff as he upheld the MPC Team LIQUI MOLY honours in second ahead of Schaeffler GRM’s Jordan Cox.
Polesitter Mineeff took the advantage at the start leaving Carl Cox Motorsport’s Michael Clemente on the line in the all-Audi RS3 LMS TCR Gen1 front-row as part of the inverted top 10 grid for Race 2.
This was bookended by the two newer Gen2 Audis at the rear of the grid of Will Brown and Zac Soutar, with both repaired locally in Launceston overnight.
As Mineeff led, Valvoline Team GRM’s Cameron made the best start of the field to trail the second MPC Team LIQUI MOLY Audi as third was hotly contested between Clemente and the Autoglym ASM Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR of Tom Oliphant.
However, Jordan Cox in the Schaeffler GRM Peugeot was making in-roads and was on the rear of Clemente very quickly as the lead two managed to build a comfortable gap.
The race winner from yesterday, HMO Customer Racing’s Bailey Sweeny was struggling to climb his way through the field and found a mighty adversary in Clemente for fifth.
Another to not progress significantly was the Honda Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto Civic Type R TCR, who was right behind Sweeny as the other HMO Customer Racing entry of Josh Buchan was struggling in the Hyundai Elantra (i30 Sedan N) TCR in ninth.
This was in contrast to Brown as he moved to third in the MPC Team LIQUI MOLY Audi RS3 LMS TCR Gen2 before he encountered the same problem, as did Soutar with both retiring.
The battle for the lead started to heat up as Cameron closed rapidly on Mineeff and after a fair exchange at the hairpin, it was the Valvoline Team GRM Peugeot taking the lead.
Cameron went on to take victory from Mineeff and Cox as Oliphant missed out on a maiden appearance on the podium in fourth.
Rounding out the top five was Clemente, who held off Sweeny and D’Alberto in a closely fought contest. Challenge Motorsport’s Iain McDougall scored his best result in eighth from Buchan and Kody Garland in the Team Valvoline GRM Peugeot.
Ben Bargwanna joined the two Audis in retirement as his Burson Auto Parts Peugeot 308 TCR stopped exiting Turn 3 on the penultimate lap.
The final race for Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at AWC Race Tasmania is scheduled 4:10pm AEDT
Results to come.