RACE TASMANIA SATURDAY WRAP
Day 2 of Race Tasmania saw the three Australian Racing Group categories commence their 2022 seasons with all delivering surprises and entertainment.
TCR AUSTRALIA
In TCR Australia Jay Hanson became the 16th different race winner and the youngest victor in the national category’s history.
It was a faultless performance for the 18-year-old who took the lead from pole sitter Nathan Morcom at Turn 1 and continued to build the margin over the duration of the race.
In the end Hanson took the win by over five seconds from the pair of HMO Customer Racing Hyundais.
Josh Buchan came home in second ahead of his pole sitting teammate Morcom.
Morcom did finish on the podium but had to hold off the attack of hard charging Renault Megane driver James Moffat in the closing stages of the race.
Aaron Cameron made his way up from ninth on the grid to round out the top five in his Peugeot 308.
Behind him privateer entry Zac Soutar was the best finishing Honda in sixth beating current Supercars Championship driver and former TCR Australia series winner Will Brown.
In the closing laps Soutar managed to hold Brown, his Honda brand mate Tony D’Alberto and Dylan O’Keeffe at bay.
There was a great battle for 10th position, a position that is rewarded with the inverted grid race pole for Race 2 tomorrow.
The battle was between Brad Shiels and two former Supercars drivers Fabian Coulthard and Michael Caruso.
On lap 14 Coulthard snatched 10th position away from Shiels, but a mistake seconds later at the hairpin allowed Shiels back through.
Michael Caruso started at the back of the grid after a power steering issue in qualifying, he made his way through the field quickly and caught both Shiels and Coulthard, however ran out of laps, finishing behind the pair in 12th.
S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship
Reigning S5000 champion Joey Mawson won the opening race of the season holding at bay James Golding for the entirety of the 26-lap encounter.
It was an intense fight out front with Golding remaining with half a second of the hard charging Golding for much of the race.
Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Golding started from pole position however it was Mawson that made the better start and immediately took the lead on the run into Turn 1.
Despite clearly having more pace early in the race Golding was unable to get close enough to retake the lead.
Late on Mawson’s Team BRM came on strong and allowed him to pull away and take the win by 1.25s.
Supercars driver Tim Slade finished third on his S5000 debut for Team BRM.
He started from that position but briefly fell to fourth behind privateer entry Cooper Webster.
Webster was forced to defend from Slade on lap 1 at the Turn 4 hairpin and compromised his exit, as a result Slade got in the tow and managed to take third back into Turn 6.
From there the remainder of the race was fairly processional, with Mawson holding off Golding.
Despite his best-efforts Webster was unable to get by Slade and had to settle for fourth, still a good race for a team in only its fourth ever race.
Two-time Gold Star winner Tim Macrow was unable to match the pace of the cars ahead, he finished in fifth ahead of the two 88 racing cars Blake Purdie and Super2 Series driver and S5000 rookie Josh Fife.
Former Touring Car Masters driver and home state hero Adam Garwood and Kaleb Ngatoa rounded out the nine-car field.
National Trans Am Series
Former Toyota 86 Series driver Tim Brook won the opening race of the National Trans Am Series from second on the grid.
Brook took the lead of the race at Turn 1 from pole sitter Kyle Gurton and was able to hold on to take the race win.
It was not plain sailing for Brook who had to hold the field at bay on two restarts and an attack from Gurton.
The race was interrupted by three safety cars, the first to recover former Super2 driver and Trans Am rookie Jon McCorkindale who was beached in the gravel at Turn 6, the second was for a grass fire at the same corner caused by an off-track excursion of Craig Scutella.
The race would finish under safety car when Tim Shaw was tapped by Nash Morris on the exit of Turn 2 and spun into the Armco.
On the first restart Gurton briefly retook the lead at Turn 4, however by the time they got to Turn 5 Brook had nosed back ahead.
It was a close but fair battle that in the end saw Brook prevail from Gurton and reigning series winner Nathan Herne.
Ben Grice and former V8 ute driver Elliott Barbour on debut rounded out the top five.
Cody Burcher, Brett Holdsworth, Lochie Dalton, Dalton Ellery and Jett Johnson completed the 10.
Owen Kelly made an unscheduled stop under safety car and fell to the bac of the field, he recovered to finish in 12th, while Nic Carroll broke down when well inside the top 10 with a handful of laps remaining.
