Chaz Mostert completed a clean sweep of victories in the final TCR Australia race at Bathurst, once again having to pass Aaron Cameron to claim the win in a safety-car interrupted race.
As in the previous two races this weekend, Mostert initially lost out in his Audi to the fast-starting Peugeot of Cameron, slotting into second at the very start.
The race was only half a lap old when it had to be neutralised for the first time when the Alfa Romeo of Lee Holdsworth, running in sixth at the time, stopped on track with a fire, his Ashley Seward Motorsport team having changed the turbo on his car just before the race.
That required the safety car to be out on track for three laps, with racing resuming on lap four in the time-certain race.
However, the race was only able to run for a few corners once again when the Honda of Tony D’Alberto went off the circuit at the first corner whilst he was battling with the independently-run Civic of Michael Clemente towards the rear of the pack.
After another delay, the racing resumed on lap seven and Cameron tried to open up his lead, but Mostert kept close to the tail of the 308, unlike in the early stages of Saturday’s race two.
That meant that heading onto lap eight Mostert was right on the rear bumper of Cameron and able to pounce into Turn 1, taking the lead without contact.
With the race distance shortened from ten to nine laps due to the interruptions, that meant Melbourne Performance Centre’s Mostert only had to hold on for one more lap to complete a hat-trick of victories and extend his championship lead to 63 points over Cameron.
Jordan Cox completed his resurgent weekend to claim a podium in third, having got the jump on Garth Tander’s Audi at the start on the first lap. Cox had been forced to start the first race of the event from the very back of the grid due to an off in qualifying on Saturday, despite being fourth quickest at the time.
Tander was unable to add a third podium of the event and claimed to fourth, ahead of the Wall Racing Honda of John Martin in fifth, who had an uneventful race.
James Moffat brought his Renault home in sixth, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Brad Shiels in seventh.
Jason Bargwanna’s Peugeot was eighth, gaining a position on lap seven when his son Ben, who had passed him earlier in the race, suffered a high-speed off at The Chase and dropped to 17th.
The top ten was completed by the Hyundais of Nathan Morcom and Josh Buchan, Morcom having made up five places.
Jay Hanson was the biggest mover in the race, the young Alfa Romeo driver coming from 20th on the grid to claim 11th after he had to retire from race two on Saturday due to a throttle issue and started from the back of the grid for this race.
The next round of the championship takes place at Sydney Motorsport Park on 1 – 2 May.