Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna shared the victories in Sunday’s TCR Australia action at Sandown Raceway, resulting in the latter leaving the first round as the clear championship leader.
In the first race on Sunday, the second of the weekend, Wall Racing’s John Martin and Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keeffee had secured the front row for the partially reversed-grid race.
However, at the start neither made an especially good getaway, whilst Cox, from sixth on the grid, made a superb start and was in front before the first corner.
Clay Richards assumed second, from third on the grid, in his Carl Cox Motorsport CUPRA, with GRM’s Ryan Casha following him past the front-row men to hold third early on.
The safety car would be called on after just one lap of racing, however, when Glenn Nirwan tagged the back of Marcus LaDelle’s older Audi at Turn 4. Nirwan was out with broken right-front suspension, whilst LaDelle limped back to the pits with right-rear damage to his RS3.
It took until lap seven for racing to resume, and by this stage the delays were such that there would only be six laps of racing.
Cox came under heavy pressure from Richards for most of those remaining half dozen laps, but the Peugeot driver ultimately prevailed to score his first victory in the series in more than two years.
Richards kept the pressure on the leader until the final half a lap, when he went slightly deep into Turn 9, resulting in him having to settle for second. For the third-generation racer, that represents an impressive second podium in only his eighth start in the series.
Casha completed the podium with his maiden visit to the rostrum in only his second race in TCR, holding off Zac Soutar’s Audi, who was fourth.
Pole-sitter Martin brought his Honda home in fifth, ahead of reigning champion Josh Buchan in sixth, the HMO Customer Racing driver having got past O’Keeffe’s Lynk & Co on the lap after the restart, followed by a deft pass on Bargwanna’s Peugeot a lap later down the back straight.
Bargwanna took seventh, securing him a front-row start for the final race, ahead of GRM’s Aaron Cameron in eighth, the Peugeot driver posting the fastest lap of the race in a recovery drive after starting down in 13th due to a drive belt issue hampering his Saturday performance.
The top ten was completed by O’Keeffe and Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto, both drivers slipping back in the race after the restart.
Race two result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 33 |  |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 20:59.5320 | 1:16.423 | 6 | |
| 2 | 4 | |
Clay RICHARDS | Carl Cox Motorsport Team MPC | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 0.874 | 1:16.476 | 3 | |
| 3 | 79 | |
Ryan CASHA | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 2.032 | 1:16.459 | 4 | |
| 4 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 2.632 | 1:16.405 | 7 | |
| 5 | 76 | |
John MARTIN | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 3.808 | 1:16.782 | 1 | |
| 6 | 1 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 4.221 | 1:16.592 | 9 | |
| 7 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Hangcha Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 4.585 | 1:16.846 | 10 | |
| 8 | 18 | T | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 4.920 | 1:16.368 | 13 |
| 9 | 11 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 5.332 | 1:16.530 | 2 | |
| 10 | 2 | T | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 5.843 | 1:16.487 | 8 |
| 11 | 74 | T | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 6.243 | 1:16.670 | 5 |
| 12 | 15 | T |  |
Tom OLIPHANT | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 10.054 | 1:17.260 | 11 |
| 13 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Challenge Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 11.888 | 1:17.506 | 15 | |
| R | 29 |  |
Glenn NIRWAN | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 14 | |
| R | 99 | |
Marcus LADELLE | Beyond Constructions 99 Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 12 |
Race Two
In race two, Bargwanna made a strong start to jump fellow front-row starter Buchan into the first corner, and the 22-year-old didn’t look back thereafter, romping to a second win of the weekend by over three seconds from the chasing Hyundai.
Buchan didn’t have an answer to Bargwanna’s pace, but with consistency being key in TCR Australia he claimed a second podium of the weekend to ensure he leaves Sandown just two points behind Bargewanna in the drivers’ standings.
The order for the race was effectively set after the opening lap, with race two victor Cox completing the podium, a result which leaves the GRM Peugeot driver third in the points, just six shy of the top of the table.
Soutar brought his Audi home in fourth, ahead of Casha’s Peugeot in fifth and D’Alberto’s Honda in sixth.
Richards was seventh in his CUPRA, ahead of Cameron in eighth, O’Keeffe in ninth and Iain McDougall completing the top ten. The latter had been in 12th on the penultimate lap, but passed John Martin’s Honda on track and then benefitted from a time penalty for Brad Harris to take tenth.
Harris was handed a 15-second time penalty for contact with Tom Oliphant on the opening lap. Oliphant had just dived inside Harris’ Honda at the penultimate corner, only for Harris to tag the back of the Hyundai on the switchback to go onto the start-finish straight.
Although Oliphant circulated at the back of the pack for 12 laps after the incident, he ultimately retired to the pits with damage to his car.
Harris was thus placed in 12th, just behind team-mate Martin. The Audis of LaDelle and Nirwan completed the field in 13th and 14th respectively.
Bargwanna leads the drivers’ standings with 125 points, ahead of Buchan (123), Cox (119), Soutar (116) and Casha (108). The next round takes place in just over a month, at Symmons Plains on 16 – 17 March.
Race three result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Hangcha Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 21:38.7846 | 1:16.165 | 2 | |
| 2 | 1 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 3.283 | 1:15.955 | 1 | |
| 3 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 4.704 | 1:16.221 | 3 | |
| 4 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 6.744 | 1:16.192 | 4 | |
| 5 | 79 | |
Ryan CASHA | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 7.502 | 1:16.366 | 5 | |
| 6 | 2 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 8.149 | 1:16.350 | 7 | |
| 7 | 4 | |
Clay RICHARDS | Carl Cox Motorsport Team MPC | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 17 | 8.636 | 1:16.334 | 6 | |
| 8 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 10.173 | 1:16.430 | 11 | |
| 9 | 11 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 17 | 14.440 | 1:16.525 | 10 | |
| 10 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Challenge Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 29.877 | 1:17.329 | 15 | |
| 11 | 76 | |
John MARTIN | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 30.467 | 1:16.843 | 8 | |
| 12 | 74 | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 32.111 | 1:16.437 | 9 | |
| 13 | 99 | |
Marcus LADELLE | Beyond Constructions 99 Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 37.721 | 1:17.731 | 13 | |
| 14 | 29 | |
Glenn NIRWAN | Tufflift Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 1:11.214 | 1:17.928 | 14 | |
| R | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | DNF | 1:17.063 | 12 |