Jordan Cox doubles up in TCR Australia season finale

Jordan Cox won again in the final race of the 2021 TCR Australia season at Mount Panorama, inheriting the lead when longtime leader James Moffat suffered from a tyre issue.

With the grid decided by the accumulated points from the first two races of the event, GRM’s Aaron Cameron lined up on pole position with Cox alongside.

At the start, Cameron led from Cox and Jason Bargwanna, who progressed to third past Moffat despite his Peugeot smoking on the warmup lap.

The move was short-lived, as Moffat then passed Bargwanna for third around the outside of Turn 2, before completing a strong pass for second on Cox at The Chase at the end of the opening lap.

Cameron had opened up a comfortable margin on the first tour, but Moffat worked to reduce that over the subsequent laps, bringing Cox with him, and at The Chase on lap four he dived up the inside for the lead, with Cox completing a pass for second at the final corner of the same lap.

The safety car then came out at the end of lap four when Nathan Morcom, who had also been given a penalty for a jump start, crashed on the mountain, hitting the wall with his left-front and stopping on the circuit.

Racing resumed on lap seven, and Moffat began to eke out a lead again, although after a few laps Cox closed the gap and began to build the pressure.

On lap 12, Moffat then suffered from a front-right tyre delamination on the back straight, dropping him out of the race and handing Cox the lead.

Cox then held station for the final three laps, winning for the second time this week ahead of Cameron in second.

GRM’s Michael Caruso completed the podium in his Alfa Romeo, having got past Jason Bargwanna for the position on lap nine with a solid move at The Chase, claiming his second podium finish this week.

Melbourne Performance Centre’s Luke King was fourth, having passed Ben Bargwanna two laps from the end when the Peugeot driver went off and dropped six places, before gaining fourth due to Jason Bargwanna picking up a jump-start penalty.

Jason Bargwanna was classified in fifth, ahead of the Honda of Zac Soutar in sixth, the independent racer picking up his best finish of the season after coming through from 11^th on the grid.

Newcomer Christopher Mies took the chequered flag in seventh, ahead of the Tilton Racing Hyundai of Brad Shiels in eighth.

Wall Racing’s John Martin and HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Bucan completed the top ten.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	5			Jordan COX	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	15	38:21.4591	2:15.988	2
2	155			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	0.583	2:16.194	1
3	150			Michael CARUSO	Valvoline Racing GRM	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	15	1.417	2:16.055	10
4	2			Luke KING	MPC Moutai	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	15	11.901	2:16.967	12
5	17			Jason BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	13.212	2:16.803	4
6	110			Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	15	15.190	2:17.240	11
7	75			Christopher MIES	Melbourne Performance Centre	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	15	15.517	2:16.967	13
8	333			Brad SHIELS	Tilton Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	17.155	2:17.181	16
9	24			John MARTIN	Mobil 1 Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	15	17.973	2:16.971	5
10	30			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	20.260	2:17.028	17
11	14			Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector / Southern Star	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	15	20.802	2:17.591	6
12	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	15	28.176	2:16.172	8
13	33			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Lowbake Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	15	30.651	2:17.611	14
14	78			Keegan BRAIN	Purple Sector	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	15	31.232	2:19.103	9
15	34			James MOFFAT	LMCT+ Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	14	+ 1 LAP	2:16.265	3
R	11			Nathan MORCOM	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	3	DNF	2:18.425	7
NS	9			Jay HANSON	AWC / Melbourne Performance Centre	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15
NS	25			Chaz MOSTERT	MPC Bostik Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–