Cameron and Sweeny rule TCR Australia at Bathurst
Aaron Cameron and Bailey Sweeny were the dominant forces in TCR Australia’s third event at Bathurst. Cameron drove his Peugeot 308 to a couple of authoritative wins in the first and third races, while Sweeny claimed his maiden victory in Race 2.
In the championship standings, Tony D’Alberto retained the lead with a margin of 37 points over Will Brown, while Dylan O’Keeffe moved into third, five further points adrift.
The Peugeot cars had dominated the Qualifying, hogging the top four places with Cameron ahead of Jordan Cox, Ben Bargwanna and O’Keeffe, although Cox was dropped three places for impeding Brown in Qualifying.
In Race 1, Cameron led all the way, with Bargwanna and O’Keeffe securing a 1-2-3 finish for Peugeot, while Cox crashed out from P4 in lap 5. Brown recovered from ninth on the grid to finish fourth ahead of James Moffat, Tim Slade and Tony D’Alberto.
Michael Caruso’s Alfa Romeo was on pole of the top-ten reversed grid for Race 2 and led at the start, but Sweeny passed him in lap 2 and went on to claim his maiden win with an 11-second margin. Behind him, Moffat moved up to second ahead of Caruso in lap 5 and then resisted the return of Josh Buchan who secured third by overtaking Caruso in the last lap. Cox recovered up to eighth after starting 21st but made contact with Cameron while they were fighting for P7 and dropped to 13th.
In the third race, Cameron pipped the pole-sitter Moffat at the start and ran away; he built a comfortable gap, while the battle for second raged behind him. Moffat tried to defend the position but spun after making contact with O’Keeffe and dropped to eighth. Sweeny and Brown finished in second and third, but Brown was handed a five second penalty for a collision with Buchan that demoted him to sixth. O’Keeffe too had a penalty of 10 seconds for the incident with Moffat and so Buchan was promoted to third.
The next event will be at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 28/29.
Bathurst – Race 1
1. Aaaron Cameron (Team Valvoline GRM, Peugeot 308), 10 laps
2. Ben Bargwanna (Burson Auto Parts Racing, Peugeot 308), 2.8633
3. Dylan O’Keeffe (Schaffler GRM, Peugeot 308), 7.8467
Bathurst – Race 2
1. Bailey Sweeny (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 10 laps
2. James Moffat (LMCT+ Racing GRM, Renault Mégane RS), 11.4742
3. Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 11.8067
Bathurst – Race 3
1. Aaaron Cameron (Team Valvoline GRM, Peugeot 308), 10 laps
2. Bailey Sweeny (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 6.5967
3. Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 11.1210
Championship points
1. T. D’Alberto, 322 pts; 2. W. Brown, 285; 3. D. O’Keeffe 280
Picture: TCR Australia/Jack Martin
