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Buchan Grabs Second Pole of the Season in Sydney
A wild lap has netted reigning Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series champion Josh Buchan pole position for Race Sydney.
Tyre degradation on Sydney Motorsport Park’s ageing surface made the first flying lap all-important, and Buchan nailed his – albeit with the #1 Hyundai’s tail right out sideways through Turn 4 on what proved to be his pole lap.
Buchan will be joined by Phillip Island round winner Brad Harris in the #74 Honda, with Dylan O’Keeffe making it three marques in the top three in the #11 Lynk & Co.
Tony D’Alberto and Tom Oliphant were next, with Zac Soutar set to join the Englishman on the third row.
Soutar had only bumped his way into the second 10-minute Q2 part of qualifying in the closing moments of Q1.
GRM’s Aaron Cameron sat on the bubble by just over 0.2s as the chequered flag neared but the #18 Peugeot parked up in the pits for the final minutes of the session.
Either of Soutar’s final two laps were good enough to make the cut, his final mark leaving him fifth in Q1 and Harris sixth, with Cameron missing the cut by just 0.08s.
It proved a challenging session for GRM’s four-car Peugeot fleet, although three of them will cop five-place grid penalties for engine changes prior to the weekend.
Ryan Casha was next best behind Cameron, the pair ahead of Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna in the new P51-model Peugeots that make their debut this weekend.
However, all three will drop to the tail of the field with their penalties, elevating Will Harris to eighth and Glenn Nirwan to ninth on the grid for Race 1 at 2:50pm AEDT.