Buzadzic holds off Fogg in thrilling Touring Car Masters Trophy Race

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: February 23, 2024

The Touring Car Masters season has begun in style after Danny Buzadzic just held off Angus Fogg in a tense Trophy Race at Bathurst.

Both Buzadzic and Fogg have recently overcome significant rebuilds in their respective Torana A9X and Mustang Coupe beats and put on a show.

Buzadzic charged up eight spots and Fogg six positions to hit the lead early and they wrestled for it in a grandstand finish across the final laps.

Despite the odd lockup, Buzadzic was able to fend off Fogg by just 0.16s, while Jim Pollicina also put in a fighting drive to score a podium.

Buzadzic’s last TCM race ended heartbreakingly in the fence at Adelaide and after a mighty rebuild, he could not contain his joy of winning at Mount Panorama.

“This is the. Best thing in car racing,” he told AUTO ACTION.

“Just to be racing around Bathurst is great and then it started to rain and I had Fogg being a monster behind me and I did not know what to think.

“I had a few driving issues but held it all together and we got the win!”

Tony Karanfilovski and Pollicina were on the front row and the latter flew around the outside in his red Torana at Hell Corner.

But the fight for the lead was not resolved as Karanfilovski fought back up Mountain Straight but it was resolved at Griffins Bend where Pollicina made it count on the inside.

Behind them on the charge was Buzadzicm who had a flying start, climbing six positions to soar to third ahead of John Adams. Jamie Tilley was also on the charge climbing seven spots to fourth.

At the start of the second lap Buzadzic made a challenge for second at Griffins Bend but could not make it stick until the entry to the Cutting, displacing Karanfilovski.

Karanfilovski led a tight train of cars fighting for third until he was swamped by Jamie Tilley and Fogg on Conrod Straight.

On that same lap there was a lead change at The Chase where Buzadzic took control of the race at The Chase passing Pollicina.

Fogg also had the hammer down in his Mustang, and snatched second by diving down the inside of Pollicina at Forests Elbow.

By now Buzadzic was more than a second up the road and Fogg started reeling him in as Marcus Zukanovic dropped out of the top five slowing on Mountain Straight.

Steven Johnson was also up there but dived into the pits late in the race with mechanical issues.

On lap 7 Fogg was hounding the back of Buzadzic and a lockup from the leader at Murrays Corner opened the door for the Mustang and the Kiwi had a look at Griffins Bend but could not get by as rain started to add another element.

Meanwhile Joel Heinrich made a late ambush for the podium on Pollicina at the chase on the penultimate lap and momentarily got by, only to carry too much speed and run wide, allowing Pollicina to snatch it back.

Despite many valiant attempts, Fogg could not quite make the move on Buzadzic, who held on to a joyous win.

Touring Car Masters next go racing at 08.50 AEDT Saturday morning.

Touring Car Masters Trophy Race results

There is also lots more loaded into a bumper edition of AUTO ACTION magazine, on sale at newsagents Thursday and available digitally here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

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