News
Soutar’s Bathurst Success Amid Tantalising Title Fight
Press Release – Tufflift Racing
The Tufflift Racing team has enjoyed a successful weekend at the infamous Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst to cap off what has been an incredible year of racing for the Geelong based outfit.
Sitting in second place in the overall points standings coming into the weekend, Tufflift Racing driver Zac Soutar knew that it would take a perfect weekend on track to give himself and his team the best possible chance of tasting championship glory in 2024.
The weekend could not have got off to a better start on Saturday morning in qualifying, with Soutar putting in a fantastic lap around the mountain to blitz the field and qualify on pole position by more than 8 tenths of a second. This was the first time Soutar had qualified on pole in the TCR Australia Series, and also gave the #110 Audi driver six crucial series points to help cut down the lead ever so slightly to his title leading rival Josh Buchan.
The fast-paced theme continued for Soutar on Saturday afternoon in Race 1. After a perfect launch from his pole position grid slot, Soutar was able to jump straight into the lead of the race heading into the first corner. After putting in a series of fast laps early in the piece out front, Soutar was able to pull out a slight gap to his rivals behind before bringing home his third race win of the 2024 season. This rounded out a perfect Saturday for the Tufflift Racing team, with maximum points being scored across the day to give Soutar the best possible chance of fighting for the championship heading into the final day of the season.
The reverse grid race on Sunday morning was always going to be a challenging one, but with the speed that the Tufflift Racing Audi had onboard the team was hopeful of a positive result. Starting from 10th place, Soutar avoided some early carnage and plenty of wheel banging from his rivals in front to come home in 7th position. Crucially however, his championship rival Buchan received a 5 second post-race penalty for jumping the start, which promoted Soutar to 6th place and reduced the points gap to the leader by a further 2 points.
Starting from pole position for the final race of the season and knowing it would take a DNF for rival Buchan to be crowned champion, Soutar’s sole focus was to try and back up his Saturday performance and bring home another race win for the team. This plan was made all the more difficult on lap 1 however, with Soutar and rival Dylan O’Keeffe making contact into Turn 2 whilst fighting hard for the race lead, which almost sent the Tufflift Racing Audi flying into the fence. A spectacular save kept Soutar on track, albeit back down in 7th place. A valiant recovery drive highlighted by some exciting overtaking saw Soutar recover back to 3rd place by the chequered flag. This result delivered his 8th podium of the season in what has been both Soutar and the team’s most successful TCR campaign to date.
In the end the result wasn’t quite enough to overcome the gap to championship points leader Josh Buchan, and Zac would have to settle for a 2nd place finish overall in the 2024 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series.
Quotes
Zac Soutar – Driver – Car #110 – Tufflift Racing
“We certainly gave it everything this weekend and throughout the whole 2024 season. It always hurts a little bit when you finish second and fall short of grabbing a championship win when it feels like it was certainly within reach. Regardless, I’m so proud to be able to say that our team has achieved a pole position, fastest race lap and race win at Bathurst. To win a race at Bathurst is something I’ve always dreamed of, and I feel so privilege that my incredible team gave me the opportunity to achieve that dream over the weekend.
Speaking of my team, a huge thank you goes out to everyone involved with Tufflift Racing for their unrelenting efforts and being flawless all season. I’m really proud of what we’ve all been able to achieve this year, both out on track and behind the scenes with our expansion to two cars thanks to Glenn Nirwan joining our Tufflift Racing family for this season. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by such inspirational people, and I can’t wait to see what we can all achieve together in 2025.”