John Martin fights to race three victory at The Bend

Honda’s John Martin fought his way to victory in race three of the TCR Australia series at The Bend Motorsport Park, becoming the fifth different winner as he also claimed his first podium result.

From fourth on the grid, Martin jumped into third at the start, before passing pole-sitter Will Brown further around the lap and starting to put pressure on early race leader Garth Tander.

Martin then followed Tander for the first half of the race, before pouncing on the leading Audi on lap seven and taking the lead which he would hold for the rest of the race, which calmed down in comparison to the first race of the day.

Tander held on to take second, giving the experienced former Supercars driver his third podium finish from three races at The Bend, whilst James Moffat completed the podium in his Renault, after passing the Hyundai ahead for the final podium place on lap four.

Series newcomer Jordan Cox was again an impressive fourth in the second Wall Racing Honda, having passed Brown on lap four as well when the series leader made another mistake further around the lap.

Brown took fifth, but in doing so largely preserved his championship advantage, which stands at a huge 127 points over Moffat, who has now moved into second just two points ahead of Dylan O’Keeffe, who had a weekend of poor form at The Bend.

Russell Ingall was sixth, ensuring the experienced racer took a trio of top tens on his début in TCR Australia, ahead of Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto in seventh.

HMO’s Nathan Morcom was eighth, unable to progress from his grid position, whilst Jason Bright was the leading Volkswagen driver in ninth and Leanne Tander completed the top ten in her Audi.

O’Keeffe – twice a winner last time out – struggled for pace in his Alfa Romeo this weekend, ending up 11^th and dropping a place in the championship battle.

After numerous crashes in race two, several drivers were unable to take the start in race three: Andre Heimgartner again failed to start in his Subaru, joined by Molly Taylor.

Damage in race two also ruled out Jimmy Vernon and Chris Pither from race three, whilst Alexandra Whitley took the start but only managed two laps due to the recurring technical issues which also blighted her race two.

The next TCR Australia event is at Queensland Raceway on 3 – 4 August.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	24	John MARTIN		Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type R TCR	14	27:41.8519	1:57.687	4
2	4	Garth TANDER		Melbourne Performance	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	2.772	1:57.739	2
3	34	James MOFFAT		Garry Rogers Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	14	3.908	1:57.595	3
4	38	Jordan COX		Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type R TCR	14	4.668	1:57.889	5
5	30	Will BROWN		HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	11.705	1:57.996	1
6	100	Russell INGALL		Melbourne Performance	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	12.398	1:58.416	6
7	50	Tony D’ALBERTO		Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type R TCR	14	13.452	1:57.459	9
8	11	Nathan MORCOM		HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	13.811	1:57.697	7
9	8	Jason BRIGHT		Taskforce / Alliance Autosport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	16.684	1:58.046	11
10	3	Leanne TANDER		Melbourne Performance	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	14	22.351	1:58.618	8
11	9	Dylan O’KEEFFE		Ashley Seward Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	14	22.644	1:57.500	10
12	62	Alex RULLO		Kelly Racing	Holden Astra TCR	14	31.986	1:59.057	16
13	16	Aaron CAMERON		Melbourne Performance	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	40.009	1:58.945	13
R	37	Chelsea ANGELO		Kelly Racing	Holden Astra TCR	6	DNF	1:59.529	12
R	35	Alexandra WHITLEY		Alliance Autosport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	2	DNF	2:14.242	18
NS	33	Chris PITHER		Garry Rogers Motorsport	Renault Mégane RS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	14
NS	7	Jimmy VERNON		Garry Rogers Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15
NS	6	Molly TAYLOR		Kelly Racing	Subaru WRX STi	–	DNS	N/A	17
NS	777	Andre HEIMGARTNER		Kelly Racing	Subaru WRX STi	–	DNS	N/A	19