Finishing on a high

Bathurst’s Mount Panorama never fails to deliver a thrilling race meeting and the final weekend of this year’s TCR Australia Touring Car Series was no exception. For Will Brown and Melbourne Performance Centre (MPC) it resulted in more silverware for their respective trophy cabinets with a win in the final race of the year and second in the Series – just two points shy of taking the championship.

For Brown it was a fitting way to wrap up the final race, winning on the last lap around The Mountain to take the chequered flag. It was his first race win of the season after a win last round at Sandown was subsequently denied a month after the race due to to a five second penalty was applied.

As always, Bathurst threw everything at the teams over the weekend, with Kangaroos close to the track bringing out a safety car called out at one stage during the first race. Then there was the appalling weather that has devastated so much of New south Wales recently making an unwelcome appearance and causing the second of the three TCR races to be cancelled. But the quality of racing was again first class and led to what can only be described as a true nail-biter finish for Brown in his LIQUI MOLY Team MPC RS 2 LMS Series I.

At the start of the weekend it was another Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, the Series II RS 3 LMS of Jay Hanson that looked the most threatening. Hanson, who had four race victories for the season under his belt coming into the weekend, put the rest of the field on notice when he set the fastest lap time with a blindingly fast 2m 12.164s to top qualifying by 0.439s.

The promise of big things to come from him over the weekend though was put to rest prematurely though when he crashed heavily at Reid Park in the closing stages of Race 1. Hanson was not seriously injured in the accident, but it meant the end to his campaign and 2022 season.

The thrilling win by Brown on the last lap of Race 3 though saw the season end on a high and marks another outstanding season at the pointy end of the field for MPC and Audi. Last year Chaz Mostert won the TCR title at the Bathurst round also in an MPC-prepared RS 3 LMS. The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series will now take a well earned break over the Christmas period before returning as part of the SpeedSeries in 2023.