Hanson claims TCR pole at wet Sandown

Audi steerer Jay Hanson has qualified on pole position for Round 6 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at a wet Sandown.

The Melbourne Performance Centre driver finished three tenths up on the field at the end of Qualifying 2 and is set to share the front row with Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Aaron Cameron, while series leader Tony D’Alberto put his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R sixth on the grid.

An incident during Qualifying 1 meant that there was a relatively long hold before cars got back onto the track for Q2, and hence what dry line had formed was made wet again as rain continued to fall in Melbourne’s southeast.

Still, Hanson came out and immediately punched out a 1:22.2299s in the #9 RS 3 LMS, which had him a full sixth tenths to the good after the first flying laps in that 10-minute stanza.

Luke King moved to second with a 1:22.5276s in his Hyundai i30 N next time through, but Cameron proved to be the man to watch in the closing stages.

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He crept up to fourth with a 1:22.8713s in the eighth minute before improving to a 1:22.5276s in his last lap before the chequered flag in the #18 308.

However, a small slide on his final lap put paid to his chances of denying Hanson a second career Supercheap Auto TCR Australia pole position, while King ended up third and Zac Soutar (Honda) fourth on the 1:22.8400s which he clocked at the start of the session.

Will Brown nearly bent his own MPC Audi on the fence when he straddled the Turn 3 exit kerb early in Q1 and he shortcut that complex in Q2, during which he set a 1:22.9783s which was good enough for fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were D’Alberto on a 1:23.1530s, from Dylan O’Keeffe (Peugeot), Michael Caruso (Alfa Romeo), Bailey Sweeny (Hyundai), and Josh Buchan (Hyundai).

Back, in Qualifying 1, Hanson set the pace on a 1:22.5231s while Nathan Morcom was 10th-quickest halfway through the 15-minute hit-out when he ran straight off at Turn 1 and nudged the tyre wall at the far end of the gravel trap in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai.

The incident triggered a red flag from which the session would not restart, meaning Morcom was stripped of his best lap of 1:23.8889s and dropped to 13th, promoting Soutar to 10th.

Still trapped on the outside, however, were the likes of Jordan Cox (Peugeot) in 11th and James Moffat (Renault) at the very rear of the 18-car field.

Race 1, scheduled for 22 laps, is due to get underway at 16:20 local time/AEST at the Sandown round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships.

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Results: Qualifying 2

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split
1	9	Melbourne Performance Centre	Jay Hanson	Audi RS 3	1:22.2299
2	18	Team Valvoline GRM	Aaron Cameron	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:22.5276	0:00.2977
3	2	MOUTAI /Zip Pay	Luke King	Hyundai i30N	1:22.5588	0:00.3289
4	110	Team Soutar Motorsport	Zac Soutar	Honda Civic Type R	1:22.8400	0:00.6101
5	999	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	William Brown	Audi RS 3	1:22.9738	0:00.7439
6	50	Honda Wall Racing	Tony D’Alberto	Honda Civic Type R	1:23.1530	0:00.9231
7	8	Lowbake GRM	Dylan O’Keeffe	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:23.3946	0:01.1647
8	10	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Michael Caruso	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	1:23.9342	0:01.7043
9	130	HMO Customer Racing	Bailey Sweeny	Hyundai i30N	1:24.0300	0:01.8001
10	30	HMO Customer Racing	Josh Buchan	Hyundai i30N	1:24.3617	0:02.1318

Results: Qualifying 1

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split
1	9	Melbourne Performance Centre	Jay Hanson	Audi RS 3	1:22.5231
2	2	MOUTAI /Zip Pay	Luke King	Hyundai i30N	1:22.5362	0:00.0131
3	999	MPC Team LIQUI MOLY	William Brown	Audi RS 3	1:22.5739	0:00.0508
4	130	HMO Customer Racing	Bailey Sweeny	Hyundai i30N	1:22.6601	0:00.1370
5	18	Team Valvoline GRM	Aaron Cameron	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:22.6906	0:00.1675
6	50	Honda Wall Racing	Tony D’Alberto	Honda Civic Type R	1:22.6920	0:00.1689
7	8	Lowbake GRM	Dylan O’Keeffe	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:23.1190	0:00.5959
8	10	Ashley Seward Motorsport	Michael Caruso	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	1:23.2819	0:00.7588
9	30	HMO Customer Racing	Josh Buchan	Hyundai i30N	1:23.7115	0:01.1884
10	110	Team Soutar Motorsport	Zac Soutar	Honda Civic Type R	1:24.0338	0:01.5107
11	33	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Jordan Cox	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:24.3420	0:01.8189
12	14	Forza Brakes Motorsport	Lachlan Mineeff	Audi RS 3	1:24.3918	0:01.8687
13	11	HMO Customer Racing	Nathan Morcom	Hyundai i30N	1:24.4957	0:01.9726
14	71	Burson Auto Parts Racing	Ben Bargwanna	Peugeot 308 TCR	1:24.5304	0:02.0073
15	15	Michael Clemente Motorsport	Michael Clemente	Honda Civic Type R	1:24.9746	0:02.4515
16	41	Valvoline Racing GRM	Kody Garland	Renault Megane RS	1:25.3580	0:02.8349
17	22	Melbourne Performance Centre	Iain McDougall	Audi RS 3	1:26.1584	0:03.6353
18	34	LMCT+ Racing GRM	James Moffat	Renault Megane RS	1:26.4339	0:03.9108