News
Huff Hands Internationals the Last Laugh in Sydney
Rob Huff has claimed a first victory on Australian soil for the Kumho Tyre TCR World Tour field, after a clinical drive in the third and final race for the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Huff got the better of pole sitter Will Brown off the front row, however making even better starts were Frederic Vervisch from third and Aaron Cameron from sixth, who came to blows at turn one fighting over second place, with the Peugeot lucky not to roll at high speed.
Vervisch remarkably escaped without damage from first the contact and then the lurid slide that followed, however the Belgian found himself down in fifth at the completion of the first lap, as Mikel Azcona muscled by at the final corner in his BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse entry.
Vervisch’s night would soon go from bad to worse, as he would be handed a five second penalty for jumping the start, as did Brown, who started directly ahead of the Comtoyou Audi.
Whilst one Comtoyou entry had a torrid start, the other TCR World Tour Audi continued to lead the way, as the Englishman Huff continued to control the pace despite the best efforts of the penalised Brown to take the lead away.
Hungary’s Norbert Michelisz would follow the leading Audi pair in driving away from the rest of the field, with the second of the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse cars sitting comfortably in third, though not challenging for the win.
Further back in the pack, the racing continued to be intense, as there was an all Hyundai Elantra N Sedan battle between Azcona and the HMO Customer Racing entry of TCR Australia title contender Josh Buchan, with the Sydneysider coming out on top for fifth outright.
TCR Australia debutant Will Harris had a big spin at turn one on lap ten after the hatch of his Honda Civic flung open, though fortunately the Exclusive Switchboards / Wall racing entry stopped short of the wall and was able to continue.
There was also a flashpoint on lap eleven when Cyan Racing Lynk & Co teammates Yann Ehrlacher and Ma Qing Hua came together at turn two after the Frenchman ran two wheels through the grass at the exit of turn one.
The contact invited a train of cars to join the fight for seventh outright, with Bailey Sweeny, Tom Oliphant, Tony D’Alberto, Nestor Girolami, and Santiago Urrutia all engaging in a terrific battle.
That battle soon became a battle for sixth, as Azcona fell into the clutches of Ehrlacher late in the race, with the Spaniard defending fiercely from the Lynk & Co in a fierce scrap.
At the front of the field, Huff controlled the pace for all seventeen laps to claim victory by over four seconds from Michelisz in second, while Brown only fell one spot to third after his five second penalty was added to his race time, securing a TCR Australia clean sweep.
Frederic Vervisch provisionally rounds out the TCR World Tour podium in fourth outright, with his five second penalty from the start to be further deliberated upon post-race.
Behind Brown in TCR Australia was Josh Buchan, who finished an impressive fifth outright ahead of Spanish Hyundai star Azcona, with Tony D’Alberto completing the TCR Australia podium in tenth outright for Honda Wall Racing.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series returns next weekend for their seventh and final round on November 10-12 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International, doubling as Rounds Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen of the Kumho Tyre TCR World Tour.