Lee Holdsworth leads an Alfa Romeo 1-2-3 on his debut

Lee Holdsworth completed a clean sweep after leading both practice sessions and topping qualifying in his Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce, leading an all-Alfa 1-2-3 in the first race at Symmons Plains, but had his work cut out after dropping a position at the start to the rival Alfa of Jordan Cox.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Alfa Romeo cars, with Michael Caruso suffering a gear selection problem on the formation lap, which forced the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver to start from the pit lane instead of fifth on the grid. With the race start delayed as Caruso’s car was moved off the grid, the race ran to time instead of the scheduled 25 laps.
At the start, Cox got the jump on Holdsworth to take the lead, while Jay Hanson held on to third in his Alfa Romeo ahead of the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi of Chaz Mostert.
Mostert was able to grab third place from the 17-year-old at the end of lap four at Turn 6, while two laps later, making a similar move at the hard left-hander, Holdsworth was able to snatch the lead back from Cox. The two Alfa cars continued to pull away, with Holdsworth going on to take a commanding victory on his front-wheel drive racing debut, with Cox just under a second behind.
Mostert was hit by Hanson with three laps to go at Turn 6 and dropped to seventh, but he was able to recover one spot, passing his Audi teammate Luke King on lap 19, and then almost got ahead of the GRM Peugeot of Aaron Cameron, crossing the finish line just three-tenths of a second behind the 308 driver.
Josh Buchan was fourth, the best-placed of the Hyundai drivers for HMO Customer Racing, while Caruso made the most moves of the race, recovering to finish 12th after starting from the pit lane in his GRM Alfa Romeo.
Hanson put his hands up to the contact with Mostert following the race but was given a 10-second penalty that dropped him to seventh.
The second race takes place at 11:13 local time (01:13 CET) tomorrow, with Lee Holdsworth again starting from pole position.

Symmons Plains – Race 1
1. Lee Holdsworth (Ashley Seward Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce), 20 laps
2. Jordan Cox (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce), 0.7763
3. Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 9.4931
4. Aaron Cameron (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Peugeot 308), 12.7401
5. Chaz Mostert (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 13.0245

Championship points
1. Lee Holdsworth 42 pts; 2. Jordan Cox 36; 3. Josh Buchan 32

Picture: TCR Australia