News
JOSH BUCHAN & HMO CUSTOMER RACING WIN MACAU GUIA RACE
Josh Buchan and HMO Customer Racing have concluded their Kumho FIA TCR World Tour foray with a dream result, winning the Macau Guia Race on Sunday.
The 30-year-old Sydney driver started from pole position by virtue of a reverse top-10 starting grid based on qualifying results, but the path to victory in the 10-lap sprint was anything but easy, as the two-time TCR Australia Series champion withstood immense pressure in a thrilling race.
The result is the second TCR World Tour race win of Buchan’s career after success in South Korea last month, and he becomes only the second Australian to win a touring car race on the famed Guia Street Circuit following Paul Morris in 1999.
At race start, Buchan was forced to defend a slightly better getaway from Ma Qing Hua (Lynk & Co) who started alongside on the front row and momentarily nosed ahead through the first turn.
However, Buchan held the inside line into the fast Mandarin sweeper (Turn 2) and defended the charging, slipstreaming pack into the first braking zone at the tight Lisboa corner.
A strong run through Lisboa for Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co) gave the Uruguyan driver opportunity to draw alongside Buchan on corner exit, but to no avail.
Defending the inside line from the slipstreaming Urrutia into Lisboa – the only real overtaking spot on the famously tight and challenging Guia circuit – and managing the low-speed corner exit was Buchan’s key task lap after lap.
The battle came to a head on lap seven, when a slow run for Buchan off Lisboa forced the Australian to defend aggressively on Urrutia who made rear end contact with and unsettled Buchan’s car.
Outstanding reflexes from the HMO Customer Racing driver kept his Hyundai out of the barriers on the tight run between Lisboa and San Francisco, while the scrap allowed Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse) to round Urrutia on the outside before contact between the two resulted in a punctured tyre for the Lynk & Co.
Ma benefited from the tangle between Urrutia and Azcona to nab second and set after Buchan.
The fast Chinese driver shadowed Buchan relentlessly, but the Aussie controlled the final laps en route to a glorious victory which he would later describe as the highlight of his racing career.
Ryan MacMillan, driving the #5 HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 Sedan N, ended his impressive rookie TCR World Tour campaign with an accomplished drive from 16th on the grid to ninth.
MacMillan, who this week also completed his Year 12 school examinations remotely in Macau, executed decisive passes in the final race of only his fourth TCR race weekend, and finished just 13.4s away from race and team-mate Buchan to record his second top-10 finish in the TCR World Tour.
RACE RESULTS
Macau Guia Race
1 Josh Buchan (Hyundai) 10 Laps
2 Ma Qing Hua (Lynk & Co) +0.414s
3 Thed Bjork (Lynk & Co) +2.405s
4 Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) +3.930s
5 Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) +5.354s
6 Nestor Girolami (Hyundai) +5.815s
7 Max Hart (Cupra) +7.008s
8 Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai) +12.502s
9 Ryan MacMillan (Hyundai) +13.432s
10 Lo Sze Ho (Hyundai) +16.264s