Jason Bright returns to victory at Winton Motor Raceway

Jason Bright – the winner of TCR Australia’s inaugural race – returned to victory in Race 1 at the Winton Motor Raceway, while series leader Will Brown increased his lead in the standings by finishing second, ahead of his nearest rival Dylan O’Keefe, who completed the podium.
Neither of the two Renault Megane RS cars made the start, as first Chris Pither headed for the pits with a brake problem and then James Moffat stopped on the formation lap with a fuel pressure issue. That meant seventeen cars lined up on the grid, with the Hyundai i30 N of Brown on pole.
At the start, however, Brown was passed by André Heimgartner’s Holden Astra after the pair made contact, which allowed the Honda Civic of John Martin to move into second place behind Heimgartner. Martin then passed Heimgartner for the lead on lap 1, with Brown recovering a place on the next lap when he passed Heimgartner for second place.
Bryce Fullwood had taken over the Kelly Racing Subaru WRX STi with which Heimgartner had started the season, but the car’s mechanical woes continued when Fullwood was forced into the pits with a broken driveshaft. Its former driver, meanwhile, dropped down to fifth place on lap 4 after he was passed by both Jason Bright’s Volkswagen and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Dylan O’Keefe.
On the following lap, there was contact between Martin and Brown while fighting for the lead, which caused Brown to run wide and so allowed Bright to move into second place. The contact had caused damage to the front left tyre on Martin’s car and the Honda began to drop back, making contact with the Alfa Romeo of Jordan Cox on lap 7 which saw Cox off the track and into retirement. The puncture meant Bright now led from Brown and O’Keefe, while Heimgartner half-spun and so dropped to seventh.
The remainder of the seventeen-lap race was then far less frantic, with Russell Ingall’s Audi RS3 LMS passing the Honda of Tim Brook for eighth position on lap 12 and Liam McAdam moving into the top ten on lap 15 at the expense of the Holden Astra of Hamish Ribartis.
Bright held on to win by just under a second from Brown, who was more than happy to finish ahead of O’Keefe to extend his lead in the Drivers’ standings to 63 points. O’Keefe, meanwhile, reported brake problems in the Alfa Romeo and so the Ashley Seward Motorsport mechanics would need to check the car’s braking system ahead of tomorrow’s two races. Behind the podium finishers, Tony D’Alberto was fourth ahead of Nathan Morcom and Aaron Cameron, with Heimgartner eventually finishing seventh and Russell Ingall, Tim Brook and Liam McAdam completing the top ten.
Race 2 will start tomorrow at 13:15 local time (05:15 CET) with the grid based on Race 1 result; Race 3 will follow one hour later. Both will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Race 1
1. Jason Bright (Alliance Autosport, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 16 laps
2. Will Brown (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 0.9393
3. Dylan O’Keeffe (Ashley Seward Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta), 8.1562
4. Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 9.6340
5. Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 13.1902

Championship points
1. Will Brown 448 pts; 2. O’Keeffe 385; 3. D'Alberto 335