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Tim Brook

Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries on Saturday at Bathurst: Nathan Herne wins back to back in the Trans-Am while Peugeots filled up the podium spots in Race 1 & Bailey Sweeny wins Race 2 over at the TCR Australia

by Sports Benches

Nathan Herne is unstoppable in the No.1 Ford Mustang for Garry Rogers Motorsports after he collected two from two wins today so far at Mount Panorama. He never looked out of pace on race day when he passed Tim Brook immediately and held off ever since, even though he wasn’t fastest in any of the practice & qualifying sessions as the cautions didn’t bother him. We love this Herne v Brook side-by-side rivalry. And shoutout to Herne’s team-mate Owen Kelly, who finished 4th in Race 1 just behind No.03 Ford’s Ben Grice, before he took advantage of Grice’s DNF (gearbox issue) the next race & scored the final podium spot in 3rd.

Then we turned our attention to TCR Australia, with Jordan Cox fastest in both practice sessions in the No.33 Peugeot 308 yesterday. Although, he was unlucky not to continue in 3rd when he had to stop his car on top of the penalty that precluded him from starting on the front row before Race 1. Cox’s team-mate Aaron Cameron stole the show with a comfortable Race 1 spell from start to finish, followed by another set of Peugeots rounding the other two podium spots from Ben Bargwanna (No. 71 Burson) & Dylan O’Keeffe (No. 8 GRM).

In the end, though, we witnessed a different winner on Race 2 in Bailey Sweeny over at the No. 130 Hyundai i30N for HNO Customer Racing. Now he may have been unable to get around Michael Caruso at the start from reverse 2nd, having finished 9th in the previous race earlier this afternoon. However, you have to praise his patience as this race goes on when Sweeny finally passed Caruso side-by-side at the Chase (Turn 20); that turned out to be a winning move before Sweeny got to celebrate on top of the podium for the first time.

Race 3 of the Trans-Am and TCR will take place on a bright and early tomorrow morning, before it’s all about the 6-hour feature race in Bathurst.

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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries, Day 2/Race 2 Review of AWC Race Tasmania in Trans-Am, S5000 & TCR Australia

by Sports Benches

The Trans-Am event on Race 2 was once again filled with a series of wrecks, especially at the tricky hairpin corner that gave no time to resume racing after the first 5-8 laps.

However, we saw a bit of entertainment where Nathan Herne successfully made the winning pass off Tim Brook towards the end of lap one in the No.1 Ford for GRM, having held off top spot through the end on what was been in a yellow flag shortened race. We’d love to see Brook show off his incredible escape like he did yesterday, but just couldn’t hold off this time and end up in 4th.

Then we move onto the S5000 open-wheelers where there was a couple of early race dramas going on. We saw yesterday’s winner Joey Mawson being collected at the opening lap by team-mate Tim Slade for Team BRM, Blake Purdie’s spin at the hairpin on Lap 8 that led to another safety car out on-track & Adam Garwood’s car stopped during the Lap 15 restart.

But how good is Josh Fife in the 88 ACMFinance.com Racing machinery, who was unbelievable from start to finish, not even the restarts bothered him where he unleashed the entire field before Fife held on top spot comfortably through the chequered flag with the win.

And we round it off with the TCR Australia category through a mix of brilliant racing and bumps into the wall.

We saw the opening lap battle for 1st place with GRM team-mates side by side between Jordan Cox and Aaron Cameron, although Cameron may be unlucky to have lost out after he urgently made to pit road for repairs but what a comeback moment though from Race 2 winner Jordan Cox.

Now Cox may have experienced an unfortunate pace lap drama yesterday afternoon where he started on pit lane & finished 17th, but he did a great job holding off top spot comfortably from start to finish. More to come if he manages to keep that race-winning form going into Race 3 a bit later on and the remaining six races of 2022.

Also another shoutout to Tony D’Alberto in the No.50 Honda Civic for Wall Racing. He too made a sensational last lap pass on Will Brown in No.999’s MPC Audi RS3, and that was enough to deliver him a podium finish in 3rd.

Lots to reflect on a great weekend of racing at AWC Race Tasmania.

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Motorsport

2022 ARG SpeedSeries, Day 1 Review of AWC Race Tasmania across TCR Australia, S5000 & Trans-Am at Symmons Plains Raceway

by Sports Benches

What a way to kick off Saturday afternoon of motorsport with Race 1 of the S5000 category in the AWC Race Tasmania at Symmons Plains Raceway, nice to see James Golding dominate through practice and qualifying where he started from pole position but it’s Joey Mawson, who dominated this one from start to finish for Team BRM.

It’s also brilliant to see Cooper Webster’s mum cheer on her son from the garage. He produced a great drive for Versa Motorsport on-track in 4th behind Tim Slade, as he’s 17-18 right now while juggling with another job working at McDonald’s, according to Richard Craill on commentary. Not only he has a great chance to be on the podium or winning tomorrow for Race 2 & 3, but also a bright future ahead wherever he goes.

Then we move into the Trans-Am where it was a race filled with yellows, such as a few spins into the gravel, a fire on the grass with 10 laps to go and a race-ending wreck after Tim Shaw was collected into the wall by Nic Carroll.

We did see some good moments though with Tim Brook’s stellar start to 1st spot in the No.38 Ford Mustang for Wall Racing, having held it comfortably even though he almost lost the lead at one point & made a remarkable recovery through the tricky hairpin on the Lap 8 restart of 22.

And we wrapped up Day 1 of the AWC Race Tasmania season-opener with the TCR Australia cars on display when 18-year-old Jay Hanson won his first-ever race in an Audi for MPC Racing, Love how he instantly overtook Polesitter Nathan Morcom as soon as the race began under green before Hanson extended his lead and held top spot comfortably caution-free until the end with the win.

Plus credit to Josh Buchan on his P2 finish ahead of team-mate Morcom in a Hyundai for HMO Customer Racing, when a decent qualifying run in 4th gave him ample time to nail down a podium spot.

There’s also another special mention to Michael Caruso in the No.10 Alfa Romeo Giulietta for Ashley Seward Motorsport, he too may have missed practice and qualifying over a power steering issue but what a remarkable recovery from the back end of the grid to 12th after Race 1 thanks to a caution-free spell & the way he manages his use of tyres count under green. There’s more to come from Caruso tomorrow both as a driver and also on-air as an analyst when not racing TCR on Nine/Stan’s ARG SpeedSeries coverage, he’s a man of many talents.

Plenty of bright youngsters making a name of themselves today against predominately experienced entries through the field, looking forward to the 2nd and final day of the season-opener weekend tomorrow.

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