Cox cruises in wild TCR affair
Jordan Cox cruised to a commanding win, but the action was behind him in a dramatic penultimate race of the 2024 TCR Australia season at Bathurst.
After a tense teammate tussle with Ben Bargwanna, Cox dominated the 11-lap reverse grid sprint.
Bargwanna dropped out of second with mechanical issues, while Will Harris and Tom Oliphant pulled off some wild moves to get on the podium.
The championship equation was simple with Zac Soutar needing to carry on winning as Josh Buchan led by 28 points ahead of the reverse grid race.
However, Soutar could not get past Buchan as the #1 Hyundai led the #110 Audi across the line in sixth and seventh respectively.
That means Buchan is on the verge of back-to-back TCR Australia titles.
There were only 10 cars competing with no Aaron Cameron as GRM was unable to rectify the power steering issues that also sidelined his brand-new P51 308 on the out lap.
Will Harris went nowhere as the Peugeots of Bargwanna and Cox swarmed past rookie Knowles, who was on pole.
The young Kiwi only got as far as the start of Mountain Straight as he was the innocent victim of someone else’s battle.
Behind him Brad Harris and Ryan Casha were side by side for fourth and contact between the pair sent the Peugeot into Knowles.
As a result the 99Motorsport Audi was fired backwards into the outside wall and was lucky to make it back to the pits.
Whilst the drama occurred behind them, the fight for the lead erupted between Cox and Bargwanna at the other end of Mountain Straight.
Teammates carried on racing and banged doors going side by side through Griffins Bend with Cox the winner of the combat.
Buchan made three spots to rise to fifth, while Soutar was at the back of the train in eighth.
As Cox established a 1s buffer over Bargwanna attention turned to the fight for third with Casha having Oliphant, Soutar and Will Harris on his tail.
On Lap 4 this became a fight for second as Bargwanna crawled to a stop at a popular parking spot on the approach to The Cutting due to an oil issue.
Having been unable to get past his teammate, Buchan lost significant ground as Will Harris won a long side by side duel before O’Keeffe demoted the #1 to sixth.
This meant the title contenders ran line astern with Buchan right in front of Soutar.
These scuffles meant Casha was able to skip away from Oliphant, who had his work cut out keeping Will Harris behind in the final 10 minutes.
On Lap 9 Harris made his move at Griffins Bend and then went on the attack on Casha, who had been reeled in.
The Wall Racing driver had a gutsy look at the first right hander at Sulman Park, which meant Casha had a close call with the wall under the tree.
With the GRM driver out of shape, Oliphant saw a small opening and went for it, somehow squeezing his Hyundai down the inside of the Peugeot to complete a rare move at the following left hander.
With O’Keeffe also passing Casha, he slumped from second to fifth ahead of the title contenders, who went side by side amid the battles.
The GRM driver had his work cut out resisting Buchan, who had to settle for sixth, but critically ahead of Soutar.
That means it is advantage Buchan ahead of the final TCR Australia race of 2024 at 14.10 AEDT.
Image: Insyde Media/TCR Australia
TCR Australia Bathurst Race 2 results
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