News
BUCHAN AND HMO TAKE HISTORIC WIN IN SOUTH KOREA
HMO Customer Racing and Josh Buchan have taken an emphatic win in Race 1 of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour round at South Korea’s Inje Speedium.
Over 18 laps on the 3.93km Inje circuit set in mountainous surrounds, HMO’s Buchan controlled the race from pole position and led every lap to achieve a remarkable victory in the first touring car start outside Australia for both driver and team.
Buchan, twice TCR Australia Series champion (2023-24), led home multiple international touring car race winner Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) and 2017 FIA World Touring Car Champion, Thed Bjork (Lynk & Co).
HMO’s rookie driver, 17-year-old rising talent Ryan MacMillan, finished an accomplished 12th in his third TCR race start.
Buchan qualified second for Race 1 behind Bjork, which became pole position after Bjork was dealt a three-place grid penalty following a collision with another car during the qualifying session.
On a damp but drying track, the 30-year-old Sydney driver executed a perfect start to lead the field away. By the end of the opening lap, he had built a margin of over one second from current TCR World Tour series leader, Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co).
Buchan’s lead only increased as Ehrlacher came under pressure for second and was eventually passed on lap seven by Guerrieri. By then, the Australian was a convincing 7.7 seconds in front.
At the finish, Buchan had a comfortable 5.8s over Guerrieri.
HMO Customer Racing and Buchan are the second Australian team/driver combination to win in the TCR World Tour, following two race victories by Melbourne Performance Centre and Will Brown at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2023.
Notably, their success in South Korea marks the first win for an Australian team in a major international touring car competition outside Australia since 1999, when Paul Morris and NEMO Racing won in the Guia Touring Car Race in Macau.
The Korean round is the first of three overseas events HMO is partaking in the TCR World Tour, ahead of rounds in China and Macau next month.
Two further races await the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour in South Korea, with Race 2 – where an inversion of the top 10 finishers from Race 1 will see Buchan line up 10th – scheduled for Sunday at 12:55pm AEDT before the final race at 6:40pm AEDT.
Australian audiences can watch all races live on the TCR TV YouTube channel.
QUOTE:
Josh Buchan
#30 HMO Customer Racing Hyundai Elantra N
“To achieve my first TCR World Tour race win, in a Hyundai, and in Korea as the home of Hyundai, is pretty spectacular and an incredible honour.
“It’s especially humbling to do it in front of so many good friends here in Korea, people like Joon Park (Head of Hyundai’s N division) and many other friends I have met working on R&D projects for Hyundai back in Australia.
“The other shoutout is to the team at HMO. Barry Morcom and Rob Benson for believing me in the early days. This World Tour tilt has been made possible by Rob’s replacement, Aaron Grech, who is my engineer.
“To our core group, they know who they are. A whole group of really smart operators who enable us to get the performance out of the car that we have. It’s a credit to them that we’ve been able to rock up to a world series, qualify up the front on merit and then win a race lights-to-flag. It’s one of those days I won’t ever forget.”