wRace winner Will Brown didn’t know whether he should celebrate or commiserate after coming up just a few points shy of winning this year’s TCR Australia Series.
The Melbourne Performance Centre driver took a narrow victory in the SpeedSeries season finale at the Bathurst International, rising from fifth on the grid.
It was almost a must-win race for Brown, who needed to finish first and hope title rival Tony D’Alberto finished 13th or worse.
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Had D’Alberto finished 12th, that would have seen a countback go the Honda driver’s way.
Brown could have finished second but needed D’Alberto to not make the chequered flag.
In the end, D’Alberto finished 11th to secure the title by a mere two points over Brown in his Audi RS 3 LMS.
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“It’s a bit of a bittersweet day, that one,” Brown said on the Stan Sport broadcast.
“First of all, I want to say congrats to Tony D’Alberto. He really deserved it, and his team. They’ve been in this series since 2019 when I start, so congrats to him.
“I’m pretty disappointed. I don’t know if I was happy or not to win that one when I crossed the line because that’s pretty much what I had to do.”
Brown’s quest for the title was made harder when the second race of the weekend was scrubbed due to inclement weather.
Rain battered the circuit in the morning before fog settled in at the top of Mount Panorama, making visibility nigh on impossible between flag marshall points.
“Obviously race two not getting run was pretty unfortunate. Like I say, that’s racing, that’s how it is.
“Tony [D’Alberto] did a fantastic job. It was awesome racing with Bailey [Sweeny] there and even Aaron Cameron.
“I thought I was going to put her in through The Chase there for a second, but it was a bit of a win or bin, that race. It was pretty cool.”
Brown won the inaugural TCR Australia Series in 2019 driving a Hyundai i30 N with HMO Customer Racing.
The Erebus Motorsport driver will now turn his attention to the final round of Supercars, the Adelaide 500, on December 1-4.
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