Sweeny makes championship statement

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 10 September 2023

Bailey Sweeny made a championship statement by taking a commanding win in the second Supercheap Auto TCR Australia race at Sandown.

Sweeny started cleanly from second and snatched the lead from Tom Oliphant in the inverted top 10 affair on lap two and was never troubled from there.

He claimed his fourth win of the year by two seconds ahead of Aaron Cameron, who soared up five spots in a determined drive fired up from losing second place overnight.

Lachlan Mineeff continued to fight hard and collected a podium in third in front of Jordan Cox.

With HMO Customer Racing teammate Josh Buchan only managing fifth, Sweeny’s points lead has been consolidated to 15 points.

Will Brown was showing strong pace before engine issues restricted the #9 Audi third DNF of the year.

With the reverse top 10 grid set drama was a given and their jostling for position was intense at turn one.

Cox got a great start from the second row and led the field into turn one, however contact from poleman Tom Oliphant unsettled the Peugeot.

The bump allowed Oliphant to retake the lead while Cox dropped all the way down to sixth by the end of the back straight.

On lap 2 Sweeny made his move for the lead on Oliphant at turn six, while Clay Richards found the gravel after a big lockup.

A lap later Cameron replicated Sweeny’s move at Dandenong Road to continue his charge up five spots into second.

Further back Zac Soutar got muscled off the track at the start of the back straight and then had another wild moment at the end of it after going side by side with Tony D’Alberto.

With Oliphant forced out of the leading places, Sweeny enjoyed a 1s lead over Cameron and Mineeff.

But Brown was also on the charge and stole fourth from Cox with a daring move at Dandenong Road.

He threatened to shake up the podium places, but engine issues saw Brown dive into the pits from fourth on lap 14.

This brought Cox and Buchan back into the top five as Sweeny had opened a 2s lead.

Iain McDougall went off at turn nine which was the only moment of significant drama during a quieter second half of the race until the final lap.

Kody Garland lost ground after being the third car to go off at Dandenong Road, while Buchan held off a late challenge by Ben Bargwanna by a fraction of a second in a drag race to the chequered.

The third and final TCR race is at 16.15 AEST.

Image by SpeedShots Photography

TCR Race 3 top five

1 Bailey Sweeny

2 Aaron Cameron +2.4784

3 Lachlan Mineeff +3.2661

4 Jordan Cox +12.4980

5 Josh Buchan +13.4978

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