Mostert and King encore in Phillip Island’s Race 2

Fellow Audi colleagues Chaz Mostert and Luke King encored their yesterday’s result in TCR Australia and finished 1-2 in the second race at Phillip Island.
However, Mostert’s victory was not an easy solo ride as that in Race 1. The Melbourne Performance Centre’s driver had to fight hard to beat King in a door-to-door battle during the final laps.
Wall Racing’s teammates John Martin and Tony D’Alberto finished third and fourth in their Honda Civic Type R cars. The race turned soon into drama for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce cars of Jordan Cox (Garry Rogers Motorsport) and Lee Holdwsorth (Ashley Seward Motorsport) who were first and second in the standings after the season opener at Symmons Plains. Holdsworth stalled at the start and Cox retired after an incident.
This meant that Mostert and King moved up into first and second in the points.
At the start, Holdsworth’s Alfa Romeo stalled from third on the grid, while Aaron Cameron (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Peugeot 308) led the field during the first two laps ahead of King and Mostert. However, in lap 3 Cameron lost the first position to King, then he was passed by Mostert for P2 in lap 4 and eventually dropped to sixth in lap 5, behind Martin, King and Jason Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308).
Also, on lap 3, Cox and Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N) came together and retired.
Mostert and King had a fierce fight for the lead, running abreast in several turns until Mostert was able to pass in lap 13, a move the gave him the second victory of the weekend with a margin of nine tenths over King.
The battle for third place saw Martin beating D’Alberto, Jason Bargwanna, Michael Clemente (Team Wurth, Honda Civic Type R), Cameron, Zac Soutar (Team Soutar, Honda Civic Type R), Ben Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308) and Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N) who finished in the order, all covered by only six seconds.
The third race is due to begin at 14:25 local time (04:25 CET), with Mostert starting from pole position for the third time in the weekend; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Phillip Island – Race 2
1. Chaz Mostert (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 15 laps
2. Luke King (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS), 0.9704
3. John Martin (Wall Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 12.1138
4. Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 13.1954
5. Jason Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308), 15.0665

Championship points
1. Chaz Mostert 192 pts; 2. Luke King 174; 3. Lee Holdsworth 168

Picture: TCR Australia