Moffat and Buchan take tight round wins

The SpeedSeries has wrapped up at The Bend where James Moffat and Josh Buchan edged their way to tight round wins in Trans Am and TCR, while Will Brown took the GTs.

A round win was no sure thing for Moffat during a Sunday where he did not win one of the two Trans Am races held.

The bragging rights were initially with Todd Hazelwood, who put in a strong drive in Race 3.

After keeping his rivals at bay at Turn 1 off the start, Hazelwood pressed on to a take a 1.8s win over Moffat with strong mid-race pace the key.

They were well ahead of next best James Golding, who was forced to sacrifice third to Nathan Herne, who was 10s back.

Golding had an eventful drive, going from seventh to third on track but received a penalty for touching Ben Grice.

There was more action in the finale that decided the round honours as contact between Moffat and Hazelwood allowed Jordan Boys to take an unexpected win.

The clash occurred at Turn 1 early in the race where Hazelwood spun Moffat as Boys hit the lead.

Although Moffat came out second and Golding snuck past Hazelwood for third, the latter received a 5s penalty for the clash with the #34.

Boys cruised to a dominant win over Moffat, who won the round by by five points and extended his series lead to 41.

Zac Soutar takes the chequered flag to win the TCR race. Image: SpeedShots Photography

Zac Soutar was the class of the TCR field at The Bend, taking out both Sprint races.

He was on the front row for the top 10 reverse grid and made full use of it to take the lead and never be challenged.

But there was plenty of drama behind with Clay Richards and Tony D’Alberto going off after getting the worst of a three-wide contest also involving Aaron Cameron.

This brought out the Safety Car while championship contenders Josh Buchan and Ben Bargwanna also lost significant ground.

In Race 3 Buchan had a tough start where he was bashed around, while Cameron was spun where Iain McDougall and Glenn Nirwan were caught in the crossfire.

Jordan Cox was the early leader, but he lost track position with a wild moment at the final corner, which put Soutar in charge.

However, the race was far from over with the recovered Buchan applying the blowtorch.

Buchan came within half a second but could not quite get close enough.

Behind them young rookie Ryan Casha held off Brad Harris to secure an impressive third.

Will Brown has warmed up for NASCAR debut by taking a maiden GT World Challenge Australia with Brad Schumacher.

Will Brown and Brad Schumacher put in a strong drive in the Audi. Image: SpeedShots Photography

Brown was key to the victory with an impressive first stint paving the way to glory.

Although the Arise Racing Ferraris led the way early, Brown critically hunted them down prior to the pit stops.

This ensured when he handed over to Schumacher, the Audi emerged with a 7s lead over the Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot Ferrari.

They could not stop Schumacher from cruising to victory ahead of the two Ferraris with Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte in third.

The next SpeedSeries round is at Queensland Raceway on July 12-14.

Main Image: SpeedShots Photography

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