Ocean Grove touring car ace Zac Soutar has finished second in the TCR Australia Touring Car Series overall points standings.
Soutar’s Tufflift Racing team was sitting in second place going into the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst and knew that it would take a perfect weekend to give himself and his team the best possible chance of tasting championship glory in 2024.
The weekend could not have gotten off to a better start on Saturday morning in qualifying, with Soutar putting in a fantastic lap around the mountain to blitz the field and qualify at pole position by more than eight-tenths of a second. This was the first time Soutar had qualified on pole in the TCR Australia Series, and also gave the #110 Audi driver 6 crucial championship points to help cut down the lead from his championship leading rival Josh Buchan.
The fast-paced theme continued for Soutar on Saturday afternoon in race one. After a perfect launch from pole position, Soutar was able to jump straight into the lead of the race heading into the first corner.
After putting in a series of fast laps early in the piece out front, Soutar was able to pull out a slight gap to his rivals behind before bringing home his third race win of the 2024 season.
This rounded out a perfect Saturday for the Tufflift Racing team, with maximum points being scored across the day to give Soutar the best possible chance of fighting for the championship heading into the final day of the season.
The reverse grid race on Sunday morning was always going to be a challenging one, but with the speed that the Tufflift Racing Audi had onboard the team was hopeful of a positive result.
Starting from 10th place, Soutar avoided some early carnage and plenty of wheel banging from his rivals in front to come home in 7th position. Crucially, his championship rival Buchan received a five second post-race penalty for jumping the start, which promoted Soutar to 6th place and reduced the points gap to the leader by a further two points.
Starting from pole position for the final race of the season Soutar’s sole focus was to try and back up his Saturday performance and bring home another race win for the team.
This plan was made all the more difficult on lap one with Soutar and rival Dylan O’Keeffe making contact into Turn 2 while fighting hard for the race lead, which almost sent the Tufflift Racing Audi flying into the fence.
A spectacular save kept Soutar on track, albeit back down in 7th place. A valiant recovery drive highlighted by some exciting overtaking saw Soutar recover back to 3rd place at the chequered flag.
This result delivered his 8th podium of the season in what has been both Soutar’s and the team’s most successful TCR campaign to date.
The result wasn’t quite enough to overcome the gap to championship points leader Buchan and Soutar would have to settle for a 2nd place finish overall in the 2024 Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series.
“We certainly gave it everything this weekend and throughout the whole 2024 season,” Soutar said.
“It always hurts a little bit when you finish second and fall short of grabbing a championship win when it feels like it was certainly within reach. Regardless, I’m so proud to be able to say that our team has achieved a pole position, fastest race lap and race win at Bathurst.
“To win a race at Bathurst is something I’ve always dreamed of, and I feel so privileged that my incredible team gave me the opportunity to achieve that dream over the weekend.”
