Nathan Morcom heads Hyundai 1-2 in final Sydney race

Nathan Morcom headed an HMO Customer Racing 1-2 in the final TCR Australia race at Sydney Motorsport Park, getting ahead of pole-sitter Jordan Cox at the start of the race.

With the grid for race three being formed by the best scores from the opening two races of the weekend, Cox found himself on pole despite having had a best result of third in the second race earlier in the day.

Morcom, who had endured a five-place grid penalty prior to race one after qualifying in second, had the second-best score prior to the race and lined up alongside Cox on the front row, with Luke King starting third ahead of Jay Hanson in fourth.

At the start, Cox held his lead through the first turns with Morcom slotting into second, as King held third from Dylan O’Keeffe.

Morcom made his move for the lead at Turn 6, with King following though after muscling Cox wide at the following corner.

As far as the lead was concerned, that was it as Morcom maintained his advantage at the front for the rest of the race, with a comfortable margin over King.

King held second for the first ten laps, but a charging Josh Buchan, who had won race one earlier in the weekend, demoted him on the 12^th lap.

King then looked like he was going to hold on to the final podium place, but on the final lap Cox pipped him to the post, with King in fourth, just half a second further back.

GRM’s O’Keeffe took the chequered flag in sixth, gaining one place from his starting position, ahead of Melbounre Performance Centre’s Will Brown in sixth.

Brown had to again start the race from the back of the grid due to the lack of points he had accrued from retiring from the opening race and then having to battle through the field in race two.

Brown’s team-mate Jay Hanson had run as high as fourth, but he slipped down the order after the first lap and finished in seventh, having battled with O’Keeffe in the early stages, but on the second lap he was muscled down to tenth in a move initiated by the Peugeot of Aaron Cameron.

In the same train of cars, Fabian Coulthard was knocked into a spin on the second lap, dropping him down to 19^th.

Hanson was able to claw back two places on the next lap, initially with a bold move past Michael Clemente at the first turn before passing Zac Soutar’s Honda at the next corner.

Hanson actually ran in sixth and ahead of Brown at the mid-stage of the race, but he lost a place to Brown three laps from the finish.

Clemente took eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the Hyundai of Bailey Sweeny and the Peugeot of Ben Bargwanna, who concluded a tough weekend riddled with turbo hose issues with a top ten finish.

Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Michael Caruso finished a lap down in 20^th having suffered from a broken rim, whilst GRM’s James Moffat retired from the race after the opening lap due to contact with team-mate Ben Bargwanna on the opening lap.

Cameron was demoted to 12^th in the final half of the race.

Championship leader Tony D’Alberto dropped to 19^th on the opening lap following contact with Brad Shiels’ Hyundai and he never really recovered, having fought with bent steering in his Honda, ending the race in 16^th, although he maintains a 22-point series lead over O’Keeffe.

Lachlan Minneeff would have been classified in 15^th but he was handed a post-race ten-second penalty for contact with Braydan Willmington, dropping the Volkswagen driver to 19^th.

The next TCR Australia event takes place at Queensland Raceway on August 5-7.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	11			Nathan MORCOM	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	27:19.3179	1:35.649	2
2	30			Josh BUCHAN	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	0.563	1:35.081	5
3	33			Jordan COX	Swyftx GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	5.020	1:35.459	1
4	2			Luke KING	MOUTAI / Zip Pay	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	5.549	1:35.577	3
5	8			Dylan O’KEEFFE	Schaeffler GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	8.569	1:35.649	6
6	999			Will BROWN	MPC Team Liqui Moly	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	14.330	1:35.521	20
7	9			Jay HANSON	AWC MPC Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021	17	14.630	1:35.708	4
8	15			Michael CLEMENTE	Michael Clemente Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	18.494	1:36.107	12
9	130			Bailey SWEENY	HMO Customer Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	18.944	1:35.945	13
10	71			Ben BARGWANNA	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	19.658	1:36.263	18
11	41			Kody GARLAND	Valvoline Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	17	22.729	1:36.348	21
12	18			Aaron CAMERON	Team Valvoline GRM	Peugeot 308 TCR	17	26.723	1:36.615	9
13	333			Brad SHIELS	Royal Purple Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	17	26.791	1:36.640	10
14	110			Zac SOUTAR	Team Soutar Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	34.603	1:36.690	8
15	24			Fabian COULTHARD	Stan Sport Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	35.033	1:36.205	17
16	50			Tony D’ALBERTO	Honda Wall Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	35.394	1:36.988	7
17	22			Iain MCDOUGALL	Melbourne Performance Centre	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	35.498	1:36.847	19
18	89			Braydan WILLMINGTON	Braydan Willmington Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	17	35.848	1:36.540	15
19	14			Lachlan MINEEFF	Purple Sector	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	17	44.629	1:36.681	14
20	10			Michael CARUSO	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	16	+ 1 LAP	1:35.488	16
R	34			James MOFFAT	LCMT+ Racing GRM	Renault Mégane RS TCR	1	DNF	1:48.700	11