MOTORSPORT: International flair for carsales TCR start-up at Australian F1 GP

Five foreign raiders will add an international flavour to the first appearance by TCR hot hatches at the Australian F1 Grand Prix.

A packed field of 22 cars will line-up for three sprint races at Albert Park, with the carsales Asia Pacific Cup as the reward and the bait for drivers from France, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

There are also bragging rights on the line heading into the second year of the carsales TCR Australia Series, which is expected to see the field of front-wheel drive turbo cars grow rapidly towards 30 cars.

Apart from TCR, the support program at the Australian F1 Grand Prix includes Supercars and the first appearance of S5000 single-seaters with former grand prix winners, Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella, heading the line-up.

Will Brown is the early favourite in the TCR field but the defending carsales TCR Series champion knows he will face a torrid time from Garth Tander, a touring car champion and three-time Bathurst 1000 winner, who is using the Asia Pacific Cup as a tune-up for a full season of TCR racing.

The wildcards, led by Julien Briche from France in a Peugeot 308 TCR and Rene Munnich from Germany in a Honda Civic Type R, are an unknown factor for the locals but are capable of upsetting the order.

For Tander, who had a win and a pair of seconds from just nine guest starts in last year’s series, Albert Park is a chance for a tune-up before he fights for points.

“We had some reasonable form last year in TCR, so it’s nice to know I’m having a full season. I’m serious about every event I enter,” Tander told carsales.

Tander is also using the carsales TCR season to keep sharp for the Supercars enduro races at the end of the year, when he will again partner Shane van Gisbergen in a Holden Commodore. The prolific racer is also driving again for Steve McLaughlin in the Jamec Racing GT3 Audi R8 LMS in evenets through 2020.

This time Tander is jumping into a factory-fresh Audi RS3 from Germany with the benefit of race running in 2019.

“I did three events last year and it was only in the second half of the last one that I felt was getting the most out of the car. For my racing brain I really enjoy it, because it makes me think. I’m enjoying that challenge at this stage of my career,” Tander explained.

“I looked at some in-car and data from the Audi factory driver last year and I’ve changed my driving style. I’m not going to tell anyone what I changed but watching a lot of the in-car of other guys it looks like they haven’t worked it out. So I’m not going to help them.”

Brown is the reigning carsales TCR champion and says he does not need any help, but has conflicting feelings ahead of Albert Park. He is keen as always to win, but also knows it’s only two weeks before the start of the TCR season.

“It’s should be a fun weekend of racing. And we want to win, as always,” Brown said.

“But it’s not part of the championship. To compete at the F1 GP is cool, but we have to be a little bit conservative.”

Brown has zero experience at Albert Park, unlike veteran Tander, and admits he is not sure what to expect.

“It’s a wide track so it should produce some good racing. But I don’t know yet about braking points or how much speed we will have.”

Tander knows but he is not sharing, especially against the young guns in TCR.

“There are probably people there who are less than half my age. That doesn’t bother me at all, they are just competitors,” he says.

“But my old teammate Jason Bargwanna is there as well. So, with Bargs there is a bloke even older than me, and half my height, so that is good.”

The TCR cars will qualify today [Thursday] with three legs of the carsales Asia Pacific Cup on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

carsales TCR ASIA PACIFIC CUP
1 Will Brown Hyundai i30N
2 Chelsea Angelo Volkswagen Golf GTI
7 Michael Caruso Alfa Romeo Giulietta
9 Jay Hanson Alfa Romeo Giulietta
10 James Allen Alfa Romeo Giulietta
11 Nathan Morcom Hyundai i30N
15 Michael Clemente Honda Civic Type R
17 Jason Bargwanna Peugeot 308 TCR
18 Aaron Cameron Peugeot 308 TCR
22 Jack Milligan (NZ) Audi RS3
33 Dylan O’Keefe Renault Megane RS
34 James Moffat Renault Megane RS
35 Alexandra Whitley Volkswagen Golf GTI
39 Rene Munnich (G) Honda Civic Type R
51 Takuya Shirasaka (J) Honda Civic Type R
75 Garth Tander Audi RS3
77 Stan Van Oord (N) Audi RS3
97 Liam McAdam Audi RS3
100 Hamish Ribarits Audi RS3
110 Zac Soutar Honda Civic Type R
308 Julien Briche (F) Peugeot 308 TCR
777 Declan Fraser Volkswagen Golf GTI