Josh Buchan starred on Hyundai’s home soil with a historic victory in the sixth round of the FIA TCR World Tour at Inje Speedium in South Korea.
The 30-year-old two-time TCR Australia Champion took a dominant lights-to-flag win in the first of three races on the challenging 3.9km circuit from pole position, becoming only the second driver from a domestic series to win a TCR World Tour race since its inception.
The sensational victory was also significant for HMO Customer Racing as the first Australian team to win an international touring car race on foreign soil since Paul Morris took the chequered flag first at Macau in 1999.
Buchan was among the fastest drivers all weekend, setting the fourth quickest time in opening practice and improving to second position in the final session.
He then set the second quickest time in the Top 10 Shootout qualifying session, held in wet conditions, and was later promoted to pole position when championship contender Thed Bjork was delivered a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision.
With the track still damp – but drying quickly – at the start of the first race, Buchan won the holeshot from pole and was never challenged throughout the 30-minute sprint, crossing the line 5.85 seconds ahead of Honda’s Esteban Guerrieri.
Even though the top 10 finishers reversed for the start of race two, Buchan was confident of moving through the pack on a dry track. However, he was forced to start from pitlane after a clutch issue arose on the formation lap.
Still, he made excellent use of his speed advantage and charged back to finish in ninth.
Starting from fourth position in the final race, Buchan had a conservative getaway off the line and dropped to sixth position by the first corner, a position he maintained for the rest of the processional race.
Teammate Ryan MacMillan showed massive potential in practice with top 10 results for both sessions. But his weekend was derailed during the wet qualifying session when a red flag interrupted his final attempt at a push lap, leaving him in 15th position.
In all three races, the 18-year-old rookie battled hard against former world champions and regular front runners in the TCR World Tour, improving to finish 12th in the opening two races and then dropped back to 15th in the last race after almost stalling on the start line.
HMO Customer Racing will next head to China to continue in the 2025 FIA TCR World Tour for the seventh round of the championship at the Zhuzhou International Circuit on November 1-2.
Car 30: i30 Sedan N TCR – Josh Buchan
“To win a race in the TCR World Tour at my first international race is amazing, and to win with Hyundai in South Korea is truly incredible. We certainly made a very positive impression and we made a whole lot of new fans along the way.
“We worked so hard in between our last round at The Bend in September, and the team has done such an incredible job to turn the car around with a new set-up direction. We definitely deserve the result we got for the huge effort everyone put in. I’m super grateful for the opportunity, and humbled with the victory.”
Car 5: i30 Sedan N TCR – Ryan MacMillan
“We threw some big changes at the car this weekend and it was looking extremely positive during practice. But then the weather turned on us during qualifying, and I had never driven the Hyundai i30 Sedan TCR in the wet which was a bit of an eye-opener. But we had more pace than our starting position as a red flag ruined my last flying lap.
“That put me behind the eight ball for the races, but I was determined to improve. And, although we had good pace, it was extremely difficult to pass the World Tour guys. Ultimately, I should have been a little further up than my results showed, but I learned a lot and I’m now looking forward to putting those lessons to good use in China in a couple of weeks.”
Race Results: Round 5, TCR World Tour, The Bend Motorsport Park
| Josh Buchan | Ryan MacMillan | |
| Shakedown | P6 (1:42.054sec) | P13 (1:42.953sec) |
| Practice 1 | P4 (1:41.821sec) | P8 (1:42.141sec) |
| Practice 2 | P2 (1:41.100sec) | P9 (1:42.171sec) |
| Qualifying | P1 (1:52.239sec) | P15 (1:55.208sec) |
| Race 1 | P1 (1:44.861sec) | P12 (1:47.366sec) |
| Race 2 | P9 (1:43.061sec) | P12 (1:45.347sec) |
| Race 3 | P6 (1: 42.464sec) | P12 (1:43.623 sec) |
