Ben Bargwanna claims surprise pole position at Bathurst

Ben Bargwanna created a surprise by claiming the pole position for the first race of TCR Australia’s season finale at Bathurst.
In Q1, Bargwanna drove his Peugeot 308 to set a new lap record for TCR cars around the Mount Panorama circuit in 2:14.6337; he encored in Q2 although his pole position time of 2:14.8922 was 2.6 tenths slower. Michael Caruso qualified his Alfa Romeo Giulietta in second position, two tenths behind Bargwanna, while John Martin’s Honda Civic and Aaron Cameron’s Peugeot will fill the second row of the grid.
The championship leader Chaz Mostert posted the seventh fastest lap in his Audi RS 3 LMS run by the Melbourne Performance Centre, while his teammate and runner up in the standings Luke King went off on his first flying lap in Q2 and did not rejoin.
In Q1, Bargwanna had set the fastest lap of 2:14.6337, beating Caruso by six tenths, while James Moffat and Mostert were third and fourth fastest, 1.0 and 1.2 seconds behind respectively. This part of the Qualifying was shortened by one minute when the red flag was waved after Lachlan Mineef beached his Volkswagen Golf GTI at Turn 1.
Jordan Cox, who had topped both yesterday’s practice sessions in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta locked the front wheels on his first flying lap, went off and then retired into the pits for the rest of the session.
The first race is scheduled today for 16:25 local time (06:25 CET).

Bathurst – Qualifying
2:14.8992 Ben Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308)
2:15.1195 Michael Caruso (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta)
2:15.2733 John Martin (Wall Racing, Honda Civic Type R)
2:15.4304 Aaron Cameron (Team Valvoline GRM, Peugeot 308)
2:15.7641 James Moffat (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS)

Championship points
1. C. Mostert 452; 2. L. King 346; 3. J. Buchan 335 

Picture: TCR Australia