Brown is champion as Girolami makes a hat trick

Néstor Girolami was never headed during the whole TCR Australia weekend at Sandown.
The Argentine guest star led from the first free practice to the end of Race 3, becoming the first driver to make a hat trick in the series.
As Girolami celebrated his third victory, Will Brown recovered from an early spin to finish in eighth position and was crowned champion in the series’ inaugural season.
At the start, Girolami sprinted from the pole once again, followed by Tony D’Alberto, Garth Tander, James Moffatt and Brown. The latter spun off at T2 and rejoined at the back of the field.
In lap 2, Moffatt made a mistake and dropped by several places, while Tander passed D’Alberto for P2. In the following lap, Dylan O’Keeffe went off and rejoined in the last position.
Girolami tried to pull away as usual, but Tander was able to close the gap, while there was a thrilling battle for third between D’Alberto, Aaron Cameron, Jason Bright, Bryce Fullwood and André Heimgartner. Jordan Cox passed Moffatt and Cameron, moving into the seventh position.
Heimgartner emerged as the fastest of the chasing group, he passed Bright, Fullwood and D’Alberto to take third. At the front, Tander was chasing Girolami but couldn’t get close enough to try an overtaking move.
Girolami won again from Tander and Heimgartner, but the latter was then given a 15-second penalty for overtaking under yellow and dropped to eighth, and so vanished the first podium result for him and the Holden Astra. D’Alberto was elevated to third, ahead of Bright and Fullwood, while Cox went off from P6 during the last lap.
The championship will return to The Bend for its final race meeting, on November 15/17.

Race 3
1. Néstor Girolami (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 20 laps
2. Garth Tander (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 0.4678
3. Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 4.556
4. Jason Bright (Melbourne Performance Centre, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 7.4607
5. Bryce Fullwood (Kelly Racing, Holden Astra), 7.8168

Championship points
1. Will Brown 625 pts; 2. O’Keeffe 481; 3. Tony D’Alberto 469