Buzadzic beats Pollicina in Torana tussle 

After a thrilling Holden Torana tug of war, Danny Buzadzic bested Jim Pollicina in a dramatic Touring Car Masters Trophy Race in Darwin.

Buzadzic had charged up nine spots to secure his second Trophy Race win of 2024, but faced stiff opposition in the form of fellow A9X driver Pollicina.

Although the Allan Grice tribute liveried Torana caught the front-row starting Pollicina, the latter counterpunched on a number of occasions with the lead changing hands five times.

In the end Buzadzic was all smiles as he won by just half a second, while Joel Heinrich also pulled off a mighty charge to soar from 15th to third.

He nailed a last-lap move on Marcus Zukanovic to stand on the podium, while at the same moment Ryan Hansford also snatched fifth from Adam Garwood.

There was drama from start to finish Rod Cannon, Allan Hughes and Tony Karanfilovski the unlucky ones not to finish, whilst Andrew Fisher did not race all together.

The Toranas led the way with Pollicina getting the jump to lead Hughes as Karanfilovski slipped from pole to third. Within two laps the latter’s Mustang was out of action with mechanical gremlins.

Rookie Scott Cameron had a wild moment through the flip flop, flying over the Turn 3 kerb and even finding the dirt as the mid pack jostled for position.

At the end of the first lap Cannon speared off at the end of turn 1, whilst Hughes’ promising first TCM race in the Kiwi Torana were hurt by mechanical dramas as smoke was billowing from his Holden.

There was drama at the start of lap 3 where Hansford went off at Turn 1, while beneath him Garwood came in too hot and hit Cameron, sending the #85 Camaro into a spin.

Amid all the drama, Buzadzic was on the charge from ninth and found himself in second and hunting down Pollicina.

Zukanovic sat third and was the last line of defence with Heinrich climbing 11 spots to soar to fourth within five minutes.

With nine minutes left Buzadzic started hounding the back of Pollicina and launched a successful dive down the inside of turn 1.

However, a mistake at the end of the lap allowed Pollicina to get a run down the pit straight and give Buzadzic a taste of his own medicine by retaking the lead at the same corner.

But Pollicina’s second stint in the lead did not last long as Buzadzic launched his next counterattack at Turn 7.

It caught Pollicina off guard, only for him to showcase his superior straight line speed to again retake the lead at the end of the lap.

But when the two Toranas next galloped down pit straight, it was Buzadzic, who had the legs.

He was able to make good use of the draft and pulled out of the slipstream to fly past Pollicina and retake the lead again.

This proved to be the defining move as Buzadzic controlled the final three minutes.

Attention then turned to the fight for third with both Heinrich and Garwood catching the rear of the Zukanovic XD Falcon.

The Whiteline Racing Camaro made a clean move on Zukanovic at Turn 1 and there was more action behind.

Garwood was struggling to stop his ZB Commodore however, and despite his best efforts could not stop Hansford from snatching fifth at the same moment.

The final lap moves provided a late twist to a dramatic Trophy Race.

The hard TCM racing continues tomorrow with Race 1 at 08.55 ACST Saturday morning.

Image: James Smith Photographer

Touring Car Masters Trophy Race results

Touring Car Masters Darwin schedule (ACST)

Friday, June 14

10.35 Practice

13.30 Qualifying

16.05 Trophy Race

Saturday, June 15

08.55 Race 1

13.45 Race 2

Sunday, June 16

13.10 Race 3

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Podcast: SVG goes back to back

Shane van Gisbergen has gone back-to-back with a win in Sonoma, while his antipodean mates – Will Brown and Cam Waters – had mixed debuts in the NASCAR Cup Series… but both showed enough to stay on the radar or the US teams looking for the next Giz?

Plus, we’ve got all the latest news on Supercars, F1, IndyCar, and whatever else came to our minds at the time. We also look at the Darwin Supercars and the hypercars at Le Mans for the 24-hour race.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here