News
Title Battle Heats up with Soutar’s Race 1 Win
Privateer Audi driver Zac Soutar has led from start to finish in today’s opening race of the final Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series round at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International.
Click here for the full results.
The Tufflift Racing pilot started from pole and led every lap to claim his first Bathurst TCR Australia race victory and chisel away a few more points from title leader and reigning champion Josh Buchan of HMO Customer Racing.
Soutar picked up 50 championship points with his win in Race 1 today and led home Dylan O’Keeffe’s Lynk & Co by 3.07-seconds with Buchan third.
“It’s such a massive effort by my team and supporters that follow me around,” Soutar said post-race.
“So many people help us do what we do. It was a tough race; I was in my own thoughts for most of it … I just had to keep concentrating, the car was a jet, so it was great.
“I knew it was an important start to get right. I think I’ll sleep pretty welltonight. I’ll give it my all tomorrow and we’ll see what happens (in the title race).”
Buchan collected 44 points for his third place, bringing his margin to Soutar in the title chase down to 28 points with two races remaining tomorrow.
The Hyundai Elantra driver is trying to become the first driver to win back-to-back TCR Australia titles and claim HMO Customer Racing’s third win in the series; Will Brown won the inaugural series in 2019 and Buchan clinched the 2023 crown at last year’s Bathurst International.
With compensation weight and Balance of Performance weights in place as is the formula of TCR racing worldwide, Buchan’s Elantra is running at 1315 kilograms minimum weight this weekend; Soutar’s Audi has a minimum weight of 1275kg for this round.
There is still a maximum of 85 points remaining available tomorrow in the final two races – 35 points for the winner of the reverse top 10 grid Race 2 and 50 points for the winner of Race 3.
Honda driver Brad Harris finished fourth on the road but was given a post-race five-second penalty for being out of his grid box at the start. The penalty moved him to fifth in the official results behind Tom Oliphant’s Hyundai i30. Jordan Cox finished sixth in the best of the Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeots from teammates Ryan Casha and Ben Bargwanna, with Will Harris’ Honda coming home ninth.
Garry Rogers Motorsport Valvoline Peugeot pilot Aaron Cameron was a non-starter for today’s race, power steering issues sidelining his brand-new P51 308 machine on the out lap.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series will be decided tomorrow with two more races to round out the season.
Race 2 – with the reverse top 10 grid – will start at 10.05am AEDT and Race 3 will commence at 2.10pm AEDT.
Kiwi TCR Australia Series debutante Blake Knowles will start from pole position for Race 2 tomorrow due to the reverse top 10 grid. He finished 10th in today’s race at the wheel of 99motorsport’s Audi.
Coverage of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International is streaming on 7+ today, Saturday, from 11.45am to 6pm AEDT and on Sunday from 10am to 5.15pm AEDT.
Free to air coverage is airing today, Saturday, on 7mate from 2pm to 4pm AEDT and on Sunday on 7two from 2pm to 4pm AEDT (including Race 3 of TCR).