Photo: TCR Australia

John Martin takes maiden TCR Australia win in final race at The Bend

Wall Racing Honda driver John Martin claimed his first TCR Australia series victory in the final race at The Bend Motorsport Park, beating Garth Tander and James Moffat.

Martin made an assertive move on Race 1 winner Tander on the seventh lap of 15 before breaking clear to take his and Honda’s first win in the series by 2.771 seconds.

Tander made it three podiums in three races with his second runner-up spot of the weekend in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3 LMS, while Moffat brought his Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault Megane home third.

Points leader Will Brown finished an out-of-sorts fifth, but still managed to increase his points lead over Dylan O’Keefe, who received a 10-second time penalty post-race.

Tander got the jump on pole-sitter Brown off the line and led comfortably into the first corner, while Martin moved up to second place after diving up the inside of Brown at Turn 6.

Further back, O’Keefe tried to make ground from eighth on the grid but tapped the Wall Racing Honda Civic TCR of Tony D’Alberto into a spin.

The top three of Tander, Martin and Brown began to break clear of Moffat behind, with Martin displaying more speed than the Audi in front of him.

Martin eventually made his move on lap seven, snatching the lead from Tander going round the Turn 15 right-hander.

The Honda closed up under braking and made the most of Tander running slightly deep at Turn 14, to lunge up the inside of the next corner.

Once in front, Martin immediately opened a gap and was not challenged for the remainder.

Tander though had to defend from a charging Moffat, who now had Jordan Cox in the third Wall Racing Honda closing in.

Cox, who received a 10-second penalty for spinning Moffat out of the lead in Race 1 was more circumspect in the final race and held onto fourth at the finish.

Brown finished some seven seconds adrift in fifth, as 2005 Supercars champion Russell Ingall recorded his best finish of the weekend in his first outing in the series for Melbourne Performance Centre.

D’Alberto recovered to eighth on the road, which became seventh after O’Keefe’s penalty.

The Hyundai i30 N TCR of Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing) ended up eighth in front of Team Tradie’s Jason Bright, with Leanne Tander completing the top ten.

Brown heads the standings on 356 points with Moffat second on 231 and O’Keeffe third on 227.

The next TCR Australia round takes place on August 2-4th at Queensland Raceway.