MOTORSPORT: Bargwanna claims first TCR win for Peugeot

Grizzled veteran Jason Bargwanna prevented a four-ring circus by Chaz Mostert in the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series sprints at Phillip Island last weekend.

More than two decades after he won the Bathurst 1000, and racing a Peugeot 308 in the Burson Auto Parts TCR squad alongside his son Ben, ‘Bargs’ applied enough pressure to the current Supercars star that the right-front tyre exploded on the Bostick Audi S3 that had carried Mostert to twin wins in the opening heats at The Island.

Mostert's chance of a three-peat on Sunday was gone, after he had delivered a master class to his rivals in two earlier starts, but Mostert was still able to limp home with a fresh Michelin tyre to protect his lead in the TCR championship standings.

The TCR undercard produced some great racing and surprising results, as a 17-year-old burger flipper who works part-time at McDonald’s took one of three torrid S5000 single-seater contests, Aaron Seton won in Trans Am sedans as Nathan Herne leads the series, and Audi took top spot in the GT World Challenge Australia races thanks to Bargwanna’s Bathurst-winning partner, Garth Tander, and his R8 team owner Yasser Shahin.

“I should retire right now. But that’s not going to happen,” Bargwanna laughed as he began the celebrations on Sunday night.

“Bloody hell, I’m stoked. I’m seriously stoked. I found a rhythm, I was in the zone. It’s so satisfying. And even more satisfying to come across the line with my son behind me.”

But Bargwanna looked nothing like a winner as monsoon conditions flooded Phillip Island on Saturday afternoon and Mostert drove to a 32-second win over his Audi RS3 teammate Luke King, with Lee Holdsworth third in an Alfa Giulietta.

“It was good fun, to be honest,” said Mostert. But even he could see, and feel, the hazards.

“I was getting faster and faster. The track was pretty scary. I puckered-up a few times.”

On Sunday morning he romped home again, with King again filling the runner-up spot, as John Martin and Tony D’Alberto followed them home in much-improved Honda Civic Type Rs.

D’Alberto did even better in the last start, finishing second despite a late threat from Nathan Morcom in a Hyundai i30.

“I’m relieved. We didn’t know really what to expect, but the car was good from the time we rolled out on Friday,” D’Alberto said.

“I had to survive the rain on Saturday, then we were in a good position. We’re still not quite as quick as the Audi, but we’re getting closer.”

The biggest loser at Phillip Island was Jordan Cox, who arrived as the TCR championship leader thanks to plenty of speed with his Alfa Giulietta at the season opener in Tasmania, but he had to watch from the pits after crash damage kept him out of the third race and he slipped to eighth in the standings.

In the S5000 races for the Gold Star championship, teenager Cooper Webster scored a stunning victory under immense pressure from Thomas Randle in the wet Saturday race before F1-hopeful Joey Mawson forced championship leader Randle into an error to scoop the Sunday feature.

Herne, who was doing double-duty in the open-wheelers, was another of the front-runners but was lucky to escape major injury when he launched his car over Randall’s in the opening seconds of the Sunday stoush.

The two-driver action in the GT championship was tough, as Tander, Mostert and Jamie Whincup all had runs at the front over two one-hour races, and plenty of the amateur drivers in the promising 20-car field found new ways to crash.

The TCR championship continues over Easter at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, while S5000s are in action next weekend during the Supercars championship meeting at Sandown Park in Melbourne.

2021 TCR Australia Series standings:

GT Championship standings:

Trans Am championship standings: