MOTORSPORT: Aussie TCR tech and talent for Europe

Australian motorsport technology will be put to the test in Austria this weekend with a transplant package from the carsales TCR Australia Series.

Garry Rogers Motorsport in Melbourne has designed and developed go-faster parts for the Renault Megane RS and one of its young drivers, 22-year-old Melbournian Dylan O’Keefe, will be behind the wheel at the Salzburgring.

The GRM move is the most high-profile spin-off from the local TCR series so far and comes as the team moves into the global motorsport arena by collaborating on the EVO package for the Megane RS model it raced locally last year.

The official homologation team for the RS EVO that will be in action later this year is Vukovic Motorsport in Switzerland, and Rogers has been liaising with the outfit for more than six months after identifying potential improvements to the TCR Megane while racing two cars in the inaugural TCR Australia Series last year.

“Our relationship with Vukovic Motorsport has been fantastic from day one and, when they approached us to do this test despite the challenges the world is facing, we jumped at it,” says GRM’s team manager, Barry Rogers.

“Milenko [Vukovic] spent a fair bit of time in our engineering department last year and we’ve collaborated on some upgrades to suspension and chassis that have been incorporated into the Megane RS EVO.

“GRM has been working hard behind the scenes on some track testing and we’re pleased that our team has played a role in the next generation of Renault’s TCR car.”

The Renault Megane RS EVO has upgrades to the engine, aerodynamics, suspension and transmission, and is also lighter than the pair of Meganes campaigned by GRM last year.

GRM’s key contributions are significant improvements to the chassis and suspension, which were directed by Richard Hollway from GRM’s engineering department.

He is one of the most experience engineers in Australian motorsport after many years in Supercars before the switch to the 2.0-litre turbocharged TCR cars in 2019.

O’Keefe rushed to the Vukovic Motorsport base in Zurich, despite the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, after getting government permission for his trip.

“I applied for an exemption. It’s fly-in, fly out work,” O’Keefe tells carsales from Zurich.

“The trip was bizarre. From Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, there were only 20 people on the Boeing Dreamliner. Then on to Zurich there were only five, so it was like a private jet. It’s definitely a strange feeling.”

O’Keefe says he will have one of the new Megane EVO racers for a full day of testing at the Salzburgring circuit in Austria, with another in the hands of British driver Jack Young, who will be driving in the World TCR Series.

He has only switched to Renault this year, after competing at the front of the inaugural TCR Australia Series in an Alfa Romeo and finishing fourth in the championship.

“The Alfa I was driving was very competitive, but this is a new challenge with a lot of opportunities. On paper, it seems like a very promising car.

“The reason for me to switch to the Renault was the exciting possibility to do some overseas racing, and the upgrades. It’s worked out well.”

Watch video: It's a real family enterprise for the Bargwanna's 

O’Keefe has already worked with Vukovic during a test at Sandown in Melbourne earlier this year.

“I received very good feedback on the car from Dylan after this test which impressed me a lot. As I’m the manufacturer of the Renault Megane TCR car here in Switzerland, quality feedback is very important to me in development of the car,” says team chief, Milenko Vukovic.

O’Keefe hopes a successful test could be an important step to a full-time professional TCR seat in Europe.

“There is no Australian driver in the series and I want to be the first. Australian drivers have proved they are competitive in other series, and I want to prove it in TCR. There is a much greater opportunity for a driver like myself to earn a proper living in TCR.”

O’Keefe knows he faces quarantine in Victoria when he returns from Europe but he believes he will have plenty of time before the start of the carsales TCR Australia Series, which has slipped several times and is now unlikely before the end of October.

“I’m stoked to be here. I knew there would be a two-week quarantine but nothing is happening in Melbourne so it couldn’t have worked out any better. It’s definitely a small price to pay.”

A revised championship calendar is promised by the TCR organisers, the Australian Racing Group, in a couple of weeks.

When racing does begin it will be with another TCR rookie, as second-generation racer Ben Bargwanna joins his father Jason – a former Bathurst 1000 winner – in a two-car Peugeot 308 TCR attack in Burson Auto Parts livery.

“We had set out at the start of the year with a clear and structured plan with defined goals for both Ben and I, then 2020 slapped us in the face and forced a total rethink,” says Jason Bargwanna.

“Initially Ben and I were going to team up for the Bathurst International in the two-driver event but those plans have changed and ours had to as well.”