Will Brown #9.
THE long-awaited Kumho TCR World Tour double-header kicked off on Friday 3rd-Saturday 4th November, with the Shannons Speed Series competitors united for ‘Race Sydney’ at Sydney Motorsport Park.
A record 25 competitors took to the track when both TCR World Tour and Supercheap Auto TCR Australia entered the pointy-end of their respective 2023 campaigns, with ‘Race Sydney’ the first of two international rounds for the year.
The TCR field was made up of 10 international drivers, from 10 different countries, all serious contenders for this year’s title race.
The exciting category had a slightly modified format for ‘Race Sydney’, with both of its qualifying sessions on Friday, setting the field for race one under lights, before rounding out the weekend with two more races on Saturday.
Supporting the TCR races were Series X3 NSW (Excels), the Workhorse Radical Cup Australia and the National Trans-Am Series
The action from Friday night during daylight hours and later under lights is summarised as follows.
Excel: James Lodge converted his pole position into a race win in an eight-lap affair in Race 1 on Friday afternoon, ahead of Toby Waghorn and Blake Tracey. 16-year-old Tracey took victory in Race 2, in an all-time classic Excel’s race, outlasting Waghorn and Longmore in an epic battle over the final lap.
Workhorse Radical Cup Australia: Just one race on Friday, with Alex Gardner converting pole position into a race win under the lights, holding off Elliott Schutte and Cooper Cutts. Peter Paddon and reigning series winner, Chris Perini rounded out the top five.
National Trans-Am Series: James Moffat took victory in a lights-to-flag performance, extending his series lead over teammate Lochie Dalton, who finished third behind Nash Morris in 2nd place.
Kumho TCR World Tour and Supercheap Auto TCR Australia: The first of three TCR races for the weekend certainly didn’t disappoint, with Australian Will Brown making history with a superb race win in a chaotic affair. Brown excelled in the changing conditions, with a safety car and red flag intervention not enough to take away his victory, crossing the line a mammoth seven and a half seconds ahead of Mikel Azcona (Spain) and Ma Qing Hua (China), with the latter promoted to a podium place at the expense of a five-second penalty handed to Yann Ehrlacher (France) post-race.
Full race statistics from both Friday and Saturday are available at http://racing.natsoft.com.au/results/#2
Full reports from Practice, Qualifying and Racing on both Friday and Saturday, in all categories, can be found at www.speedseries.com.au/categorynews/
