Sweeny fastest in incident-shortened TCR Practice 1 at Sandown

Hyundai driver Bailey Sweeny has set the pace in a crash-shortened opening practice session for Round 6 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Sandown.

Sweeny went as quick as a 1:14.7623s in the #130 HMO Customer Racing entry, finishing the session 0.1279s up on another Erebus Academy driver in Jay Hanson, who ended up second in a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3 LMS.

Rounding out the top five were Josh Buchan in another HMO Hyundai i30 N, from Aaron Cameron in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 and Michael Caruso in the Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce, while series leader Tony D’Alberto was 11th-quickest on a 1:15.5467s in his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R.

MPC Audi team-mates Will Brown and Hanson set the pace initially before Cameron went sub-75s with a 1:14.9726s in the 11th minute.

However, Sweeny had wheeled his Hyundai to a 1:14.7623s just before he brought an end to his first run, and he would get little more track time after that.

Stan Sport is the only way to watch every round of the TCR. Click here for all the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand.

A red flag was called in the 20th minute after Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) hit the fence at Dandenong Road, and the session would ultimately be called with just over five minutes of the allotted 30 remaining.

Buchan was thus locked into third on a 1:14.9116s, just 0.0214s behind Hanson, with Cameron’s best being the aforementioned 1:14.9s and Caruso going as quick as a 1:15.0680s.

The rest of the top 10 was Lachlan Mineeff (Audi), Brown, Nathan Morcom (Hyundai), Luke King (Hyundai), and Zac Soutar (Honda).

Practice 2, another half-hour session, starts this afternoon at 14:40 local time/AEST.

Stan Sport’s live and ad-free coverage of the Sandown round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships starts tomorrow at 11:00 AEST.

Results: Practice 1

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split
1	130	HMO Customer Racing	Bailey Sweeny	Hyundai i30N	1:14.7623
2	9	Melbourne Performance Centre	Jay Hanson	Audi RS 3	1:14.8902	0:00.1279
3	30	HMO Customer Racing	Josh Buchan	Hyundai i30N	1:14.9116	0:00.1493
4	18	Team Valvoline GRM	Aaron Cameron	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:14.9726	0:00.2103
5	10	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Michael Caruso	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	1:15.0680	0:00.3057
6	14	Forza Brakes Motorsport	Lachlan Mineeff	Audi RS 3	1:15.0745	0:00.3122
7	999	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	William Brown	Audi RS 3	1:15.1942	0:00.4319
8	11	HMO Customer Racing	Nathan Morcom	Hyundai i30N	1:15.2093	0:00.4470
9	2	MOUTAI /Zip Pay	Luke King	Hyundai i30N	1:15.2172	0:00.4549
10	110	Team Soutar Motorsport	Zac Soutar	Honda Civic Type R	1:15.3005	0:00.5382
11	50	Honda Wall Racing	Tony D’Alberto	Honda Civic Type R	1:15.5467	0:00.7844
12	33	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Jordan Cox	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:15.5653	0:00.8030
13	41	Valvoline Racing GRM	Kody Garland	Renault Megane RS	1:15.8134	0:01.0511
14	71	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Ben Bargwanna	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:15.9031	0:01.1408
15	15	Michael Clemente Motorsport	Michael Clemente	Honda Civic Type R	1:15.9123	0:01.1500
16	34	LMCT+ Racing GRM	James Moffat	Renault Megane RS	1:15.9308	0:01.1685
17	22	Melbourne Performance Centre	Iain McDougall	Audi RS 3	1:16.2289	0:01.4666
18	8	Lowbake GRM	Dylan O’Keeffe	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:16.3098	0:01.5475