Brown wins again and stakes a claim on the title
With his second victory of the day, the sixth for him in the season so far, Will Brown has staked a serious claim on the inaugural TCR Australia title. He took a lights-to-flag victory in the weekend’s third race at Winton, setting yet another lap record and inflicting a huge gap to the rest of the field.
After the disappointment of Race 2, Dylan O’Keeffe, Brown’s closest pursuer in the standings, managed to recover to the eighth position, but dropped 116 points behind the leader.
Brown sprinted at the start from the pole position, while Jason Bright – second on the grid – stalled and was luckily avoided by all the drivers behind.
Aaron Cameron and Russell Ingall moved into second and third, just behind Brown, with Tony D’Alberto, Jordan Cox, Nathan Morcom and Liam McAdam fighting for the fourth position. Cox spun off in lap 2 after making contact with another car and then returned to the pits, while McAdam overtook Morcom for fifth; however, at the end of lap 6 McAdam spun at the last turn and hit the pit wall. He was able to rejoin in the last position behind Bright.
Just like in the second race, Brown showed a superior pace and increased his leading margin lap after lap and eventually won by 10.7 seconds over Cameron and Ingall.
Morcom managed to overtake D’Alberto for the fourth position on lap 13, while O’Keeffe recovered to finish eighth after starting from 15th.
The championship will resume on September 20th/22nd at Sandown Park.
Race 3
1. Will Brown (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 18 laps
2. Aaron Cameron (Melbourne Performance Centre, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 10.7405
3. Russell Ingall (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 11.8994
4. Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 21.5066
5. Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 24.6852
Championship points
1. Will Brown 538 pts; 2. O’Keeffe 422; 3. Tony D’Alberto 393
