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Shannons mid-season report card: TCR Australia

With plenty to race for in the remaining months of 2021, take a look at how the seasons of our regular Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships categories are shaping up.

Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series 

The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series has managed to squeeze four rounds into a year of uncertainty and there have been quite a few interesting storylines emerging.

From the highly successful inaugural Boost Mobile Race Tasmania in January to the series’ debut appearance at the iconic Mount Panorama, there has been plenty to take out from the series.

Just like 2019, a variety of manufacturers were spread across the 13 competing teams with seven different international brands represented on the entry list.

Rounds so far 

Race Tasmania– Symmons Plains
– Race one: Lee Holdsworth
– Race two: Jordan Cox
– Race three: Jordan Cox

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships – Phillip Island
– Race one: Chaz Mostert
– Race two: Chaz Mostert
– Race three: Jason Bargwanna

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships – Bathurst 6 Hour – Mount Panorama
– Race one: Chaz Mostert
– Race two: Chaz Mostert
– Race three: Chaz Mostert

Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships – Sydney Motorsport Park
– Race one: Josh Buchan
– Race two: Josh Buchan
– Race three: Michael Caruso

Rounds remaining
Bathurst 1000 – 30 November- 5 December

The Leader – Chaz Mostert 

It’s been a brilliant debut season for Chaz Mostert, who has gotten the absolute maximum out of the MPC Bostik Racing Audi RS 3 LMS.

The 29-year-old holds a comfortable advantage at the top of the series standings courtesy of a haul of well-deserved race victories and podiums.

Out of the 12 races run so far in 2021, Mostert has been on the podium for nine of them – five of which have been on the top step.

And when Mostert wins, he wins big with all five of his race victories coming within a six-race period at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

Mostert has only finished outside the top 10 on one occasion, a P18 in round two, but the Queenslander bounced back in style at Bathurst to claim a clean sweep of race wins in an entertaining duel with Aaron Cameron all weekend.

With the final round of the season to combine both Supercars and TCR, Mostert is yet to reveal if he is planning to do double driving duties for the event.

Top 10
Chaz Mostert – 452 points
Luke King – 346
Josh Buchan– 335
Nathan Morcom – 327
Aaron Cameron – 321
Lee Holdsworth – 315
John Martin – 308
Jordan Cox – 302
Tony D’Alberto  – 290
Brad Shiels – 266

With just one round remaining in the 2021 season, it would be safe to say that Chaz Mostert is likely to come away with the title if he races.

The Supercars star has had a magnificent season and is a highly deserving champion, with that Bathurst round key to his title charge.

Below him, the battle for the minor season podium positions is a much closer affair with up to six drivers a potential chance of squeezing into top three.

Luke King currently occupies second place, making it an Audi RS 3 LMS one-two, while Josh Buchan overcame a lacklustre two rounds and power into the top three thanks to a pair of wins at Sydney Motorsport Park.

King has yet to win a race this season and has only finished on the podium twice this year, yet a further seven top 10 finishes has helped him up the standings and to a nine-point buffer over Buchan.

In fourth place and eight points off the HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR of Buchan, another driver to have only two podium finishes to his name is Nathan Morcom.

Like King, Morcom’s consistency has seen him earn his top five position on the standings, while like Buchan, his best round came in Sydney where he secured the second of his two podiums.

Aaron Cameron rounds out the top five on the standings and it’s been a tough year for 2019’s third place getter with only a trio of runner-up placings at Bathurst being his highlights for the year.

Bright starts to the season for Lee Holdsworth and Jordan Cox at Symmons Plains were followed by disappointing rounds at Phillip Island. The duo have both been marred by issues this year and will be left ruing a season that could have been.

John Martin is the only other driver with a real mathematical chance of securing the title, however a lot needs to go right and a lot wrong for his competitors in order for him to charge home with the title.

Only one round remains in the 2021 season with the newly announced six-day Bathurst extravaganza in November and December left for the year.