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A return to the winner’s circle highlights Nathan Morcom’s season
Nathan Morcom’s third Supercheap Auto TCR Australia is bookended by success.
The category stalwart got his season off to the best start by scoring his maiden pole position at AWC Race Tasmania before converting into his first podium since the fourth round of last season at Sydney Motorsport Park.
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The first inverted grid race for Supercheap Auto TCR Australia proved one to forget as Morcom finished 13th, but he was able to recover to sixth in the final.
Phillip Island was expected to be one, which suited the HMO Customer Racing trio, but it was not the case. Contact with Will Brown in the opening race set the tone for the weekend as Morcom finished 19th, ninth and 11th.
Morcom’s luck has deserted him recently at the Mountain in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia although he has enjoyed past success there as a past winner of the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.
Qualifying outside the top 10 hurt Morcom as he finished 12th in the opening race before an even worse result in the second with 20th. Rounding out an Easter forget, Morcom finished 15th, but headed to the team’s home circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park with confidence of previous form.
As teammate Josh Buchan qualified on pole and took his first win of the season, Morcom was second until a penalty following an engine change prior to qualifying. He managed to recover to sixth, but after the inverted grid format had harmed Morcom’s results at the opening round it did the opposite as he added another podium in Race 2.
However, Morcom dominated the final race of the weekend to hold off teammate Josh Buchan to take his second victory in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia to lift himself into seventh, equal with Zac Soutar on 349 points.
In what is a compressed title battle, Morcom lies just 63-points behind series leader Tony D’Alberto in the standings.
Morcom is one of a few drivers – D’Alberto included – to race at the next two venues on the calendar in the same package as both Queensland Raceway and Sandown appear for the first time since 2019.
It will be interesting to watch how Morcom goes as he also backs up teammate Buchan’s title tilt.
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia continues at Queensland Raceway as part of the SpeedSeries on August 5-7.