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Jordan Cox Wins out in Sensational Bathurst Race 2
Jordan Cox has grabbed his fourth race win of the 2024 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series in a highly entertaining Race 2 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International at Mount Panorama.
Click here for the full results.
The Schaeffler/Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot pilot scored the second win for the new Australian-built Peugeot P51 308 TCR car in the reverse top 10 grid race.
He also won the reverse grid race in the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park, the first TCR Australia race win for the new Peugeot.
“It was a good race, it’s nice to win a race without someone on my date the whole time!” Cox said post-race.
“We’ll savour these wins for sure.”
Cox won by 2.77-seconds over the Exclusive Switchboards/Wall Racing Honda Civic of Will Harris, who was something of a star of the race.
The Honda pilot started second on the grid but stalled when the lights went out and dropped to the tail of the field.
Aided by some problems for drivers in front and a fast car, he worked his way back through the field to take second place.
Harris set the fastest lap of the race, 2m16.4290-seconds, on lap 10 of 11 and scored a bonus championship point in the process.
HMO Customer Racing’s Tom Oliphant finished third clear of Dylan O’Keeffe’s Autoglym Lynk & Co and Ryan Casha’s Valvoline GRM Peugeotafter a tough nose-to-tail battle.
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia title combatants Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing Hyundai Elantra) and Zac Soutar (Tufflift Audi RS3) stayed out of the battles in front and finished sixth and seventh.
The result leaves Buchan with a 29–point lead heading into the final race this afternoon with a maximum of 50 points remaining available.
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.
There was drama on the run up Mountain Straight on the opening lap in Race 2, Brad Harris’ Honda made contact with Casha’s Peugeot that forced the 308 into the side of Kiwi Blake Knowles’ Audi.
The Audi spun and limped back to the pits to retire; Harris also pitted but managed to rejoin the race. He was given a pit lane penalty for his involvement in the incident and finished eighth, two laps down.
Hangcha Racing GRM Peugeot pilot Ben Bargwanna ran second in the early stages behind teammate Cox, though pulled over on the exit of Griffins Bend on lap four when he shut down the car in response to an oil pressure alarm warning.
The fourth GRM Peugeot of Aaron Cameron was a non-starter for Race 2 and will not take the start of Race 3 later this afternoon.
His brand-new P51 308 had power steering issues on the out lap of Race 1 yesterday and the team does not have enough parts to repair it to return to the track today.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series will be decided this afternoon with Race 3 due to start at 2.10pm AEDT.
Coverage of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International is streaming on 7+ today from 10am to 5.15pm AEDT.
Free to air coverage is airing today on 7two from 2pm to 4pm AEDT (including Race 3 of TCR).