MOTORSPORT: Hyundai claims TCR Australia title

When Will Brown backed into the fence of the first lap of the carsales TCR Australia Series finale at Sandown Park yesterday he thought he had blown his best chance of claiming the inaugural hot hatch touring car crown.

He went into the race only needing to finish ahead of his closest series rival, Dylan O’Keefe in an Alfa Giulietta, to claim the TCR championship without bothering about the final leg of the series at Tailem Bend in South Australia in November.

But then he spun and fell to last place.

As he dragged his Hyundai i30N out of the grass and set off after the pack he was shocked to discover that O’Keefe was in even more trouble with a wounded car and a sub-par eighth place gave him enough points to claim his third national championship.

“I’m such an idiot. It’s not the way I wanted to do it, but I’ll take it,” Brown tells carsales.

“I fenced it all by myself on lap one, so that makes it bittersweet and a bit disappointing, but we got the job done.

“I cannot believe I spun, but at least I didn’t damage the car. After the mistake I got going, just put my head down and went for it."

Brown is one of the brightest young stars of Australian motorsport and is co-driving in the Supercars endurance races, including the Bathurst 1000, alongside another talented youngster, Anton de Pasquale.

Coming into the TCR series he already had national titles in Formula 4 and the Toyota 86 Series and quickly established himself as the benchmark with the HMO Customer Racing squad.

But even Brown had to take a back seat at Sandown as Honda rolled out its World TCR ace, Nestor Girolami from Argentina, and he wiped the field to set fastest time in every track session and sweep to victories in all three TCR sprints.

Girolami was never seriously threatened and the runner-up spots were filled by Brown in the first race and then veteran Garth Tander, who took the following pair with an Audi RS 3.

“It was a perfect weekend. Apart from practice on Friday when I went into a gravel trap,” Girolami laughs.

“I am really happy. The car felt amazing. Now I would like to come back again.”

Girolami gave the TCR Australia drivers and teams a target and a benchmark that no-one could match, but he arrived fresh from the sharp end of the World TCR series with a huge reputation for speed and success.

He might have swept the weekend but there was still plenty of action through the 17-car field, as James Moffat finally got some reliability from his speedy Renault Megane RS, Andre Heimgartner proved the troublesome Holden Astra could also be fast, and Brown battled with Tander and John Martin in another quick Honda Civic that was only undone by contact in the second race.

There were more mistakes and biffs on the low-grip Sandown circuit as three cars failed to complete the weekend, but Brown still had a giant smile on Sunday evening.

“It’s pretty exciting to wrap it up with a whole round to go. It’s awesome,” he says.

“There were some highs and lows in the season, but that’s what happens in the inaugural season of these types of categories.

“You make mistakes and you get used to it, but I cannot thank the crew at HMO Customer Racing enough. They gave me the car and we got the job done.”