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Title Race Heats up After Buchan’s Race 1 Victory
Josh Buchan slashed his points deficit with a commanding victory in the opening race of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series weekend at Race Sydney.
The reigning series winner led Race 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park from lights to flag, heading home Brad Harris and Dylan O’Keeffe.
With points leader Zac Soutar finishing a distant sixth, Buchan’s victory trimmed the margin down to 9 points with five races remaining in the season.
“I led the championship for 24 hours last year so I don’t really mind when I lead it – so long as it’s on the last day,” Buchan told 7Sport.
The 12-car field came down to 11 before the race began with Aaron Cameron striking engine issues as he headed to the grid.
Instead of grid spot seven, he headed straight to the pits where the GRM crew investigated the issue, but Cameron hopped out of the #18 Peugeot as the field headed off on the formation lap.
“Just a sudden loss of all oil pressure on the out-lap there,” Cameron told 7Sport. “We don’t know what it is yet but it’s most likely going to be an engine change tonight.”
Dark clouds began to roll across the circuit as the cars lined up on the grid, but the looming showers held off until just after the chequered flag waved on the 30-minute sprint.
Buchan made a sharp getaway to lead into Moffat Corner for the first time, with Harris shutting the door on a fast-starting Tony D’Alberto to retain second.
The squabble allowed Buchan to build a small gap but lost it all with a big slide on the exit of Corporate Hill, allowing Harris to close right up onto the back of the #1 Hyundai.
However, that was as close as he got. Buchan stretched his lead to just over a second on lap 2 and continued to edge away.
O’Keeffe demoted D’Alberto to fourth with a decisive dive at Bond Bend on lap 3, Tom Oliphant trying to follow him through before making the same move stick on the Honda driver one lap later.
The other battle of the race centred around sixth place, with Ryan Casha working to hold off Will Harris, Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna.
However, an engine problem struck the #79 Peugeot on lap 8, causing Casha to slip down to the tail of the field.
And that was the order to the finish, Buchan winning by a comfortable 2.02s from Harris, with O’Keeffe a further 0.7s away in third.
Glenn Nirwan crossed the line in 10th to secure pole position when the top 10 finishers are inverted for the Race 2 grid, while Casha limped his ill Peugeot to the finish despite lapping over six seconds off the pace.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series returns the track at 11:55am AEDT on Sunday morning for Race 2, followed by Race 3 at 3:25pm AEDT.