Ashley Seward Motorsport driver Michael Caruso has fought back from a spin in race one to finish the round in ninth overall following a pair of top 10 results in the other two races.
Caruso pulled out a stunning lap to qualify second on the grid in his AutoGlym Alfa Romeo Guilietta and led the opening lap of race one before being taken out entering Honda corner and falling to the rear of the field. The incident meant Caruso once again spent most of his weekend charging back through the field as he did in Tasmania.
In race two he made short work of it, progressing from 17th on the grid to eighth in a field where overtaking proved difficult for many drivers. The combined points from race one and two determined the starting grid for race three, which pushed Caruso back to 10th on the grid.
Race three saw Caruso move forward to finish in seventh with a fastest lap quicker than the two cars immediately in front of him; he missed out on the top five finish by just 0.9 of a second. With the round playing out remarkably similar to Tasmania, Caruso finished ninth for the weekend with a haul just three shy of his effort in round one. The two unlucky rounds haven’t derailed his championship hopes however, with the #10 ASM driver still ninth in the overall standings.
“It was nice to fight back after what happened to us yesterday, we put in a great performance in qualifying and the team did an excellent job to give me a really good car,” said Caruso.
“Clearly the BOP isn’t favouring us at the moment and we’re punching well above our weight, but we’ll deal with it until there’s a reset.
“Considering the disasters that have been out of our control, it’s good to still be in touch with the championship fight until we can start making things go our way,” Caruso concluded.
The next TCR round will be held at Mount Panorama, 15-17 April.
Weekend Results:
Qualifying – 2nd
Race 1 – 17th
Race 2 – 8th
Race 3 – 7th
Overall – 9th
Championship Points:
1. Tony D’Alberto – 224
2. Jordan Cox – 222
3. Zac Soutar – 201
4. Fabian Coulthard – 198
5. Jay Hanson – 188
6. William Brown – 185
7. Dylan O’Keeffe – 1748. Nathan Morcom – 170
9. Michael Caruso – 165
10. Ben Bargwanna – 155
