Will Brown scores a double victory at Sydney
Will Brown scored two wins at the wheel of the Hyundai i30 N run by HMO Customer Racing in TCR Australia’s races 2 and 3 at Sydney Motorsport Park.
In today’s races, Brown was able to overtake the Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Dylan O’Keeffe that had been leading; the two victories also helped Brown to take the lead in the standings, ten points clear of O’Keeffe.
In the first race, Tony D’Alberto made a great start from second on the grid, but O’Keeffe was even faster and took the lead from the Honda driver in T2; Brown, Jason Bright and John Martin followed, while André Heimgartner was the first of the pursuers.
On Lap 3, Brown overtook D’Alberto for second and began to close the gap from O’Keeffe. On lap 8 the safety car was deployed to recover Alexandra Whitley’s Volkswagen Golf that was stranded in the gravel.
The race resumed on lap 11, with Heimgartner’s Subaru climbing up in the order and finally overtaking Martin for fifth. The fight for the lead was thrilling, with O’Keeffe defending his first position from Brown, while D’Alberto and Bright were following closely. Eventually Brown stole the lead from O’Keeffe on lap 13 and won from the Alfa Romeo driver, D’Alberto, Bright and Heimgartner.
As Race 2 winner, Brown started from pole but was beaten to Turn 1 by O’Keeffe, with the Subaru of Heimgartner then grabbing second place. An incident on the start line involving Jimmy Vernon’s Alfa Romeo and the Audi RS 3 LMS of Rik Breukers saw both cars forced to retire and brought out the safety car.
O’Keeffe then managed the restart well and opened up an advantage over Heimgartner, but the Subaru driver quickly closed the gap and began attacking for the lead. On Lap 5, Race 1 winner Bright ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped from sixth to tenth. One lap later, Heimgartner’s challenge for the lead was over, with the Subaru parked up on the outside of the final corner with some kind of mechanical problem.
That was swiftly followed by a series of incidents involving the podium positions. Martin moved into third place behind Brown after contact between D’Alberto’s and Nathan Morcom. On Lap 8, Michael Almond inherited third place when Martin left the track following contact with Morcom and, on the following lap, Brown passed O’Keeffe for the lead. The only major position change over the remaining laps was when James Moffat’s Renault Mégane RS passed D’Alberto for sixth on Lap 13. Moffat then switched his attention to the Volkswagen Golf of Aaron Cameron, but Cameron held onto his fifth place.
Following the safety car intervention, the decision was taken to shorten the race duration and so the chequered flag came out after 14 of the planned 16 laps. Brown took the victory by a margin of 2.6 seconds over O’Keeffe with Almond rounding off the podium places. Morcom was fourth, Cameron fifth and Moffat sixth.
TCR Australia will return on June 8th and 9th at Phillip Island.
Race 2
1. Will Brown (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 16 laps
2. Dylan O’Keeffe (A. Seward Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta), 3.1600
3. Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 4.1626
4. Jason Bright (Alliance Autosport, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 4.5661
5. André Heimgartner (Kelly Racing, Subaru WRX STI), 7.9766
Race 3
1. Will Brown (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 14 laps
2. Dylan O’Keeffe (A. Seward Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta), 2.6074
3. Michael Almond (GWR Australia, Hyundai i30 N), 4.8040
4. Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 6.2615
5. Aaron Cameron (Melbourne Performance, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 8.8661
Championship points
1. Brown 122 pts; 2. O’Keeffe 110; 3. D’Alberto 101
