TCR / 07 November 2023

Civic Type R TCR FL5 on podium on Australian debut

The Honda Civic Type R TCR FL5 made its Australian debut last weekend as Nestor Girolami contested the latest round of the Kumho TCR World Tour and Tony D'Alberto scored a podium finish in the concurrent TCR Australia event.

 

TCR World Tour

Nestor Girolami showed his class with a battling drive from 19th on the grid to finish eighth in the finale at Sydney Motorsports Park; the Wall Racing driver making sterling progress in both wet and dry weather in three thrilling races.

He started so far back due to a transmission issue that put him out of Race Two early on while he was lying second and forced a fast repair job by the Wall Racing team.

Having not set a lap during the only dry minutes of qualifying on Friday, he started the rainy opener from 12th place, but had climbed to fourth by the time fading wet tyres caused him to drop to 10th over the final two laps. He's sixth in the points.

TCR Australia

In the penultimate round of the season, which was run within the TCR World Tour event, reigning champion Tony D'Alberto kept his hopes of back-to-back titles alive with a battling drive to third place in the finale on his debut weekend aboard the Wall Racing FL5.

Having been spun off the track by a rival early in Friday s race he recovered from last place to finish seventh of the TCR Australia runners and repeated it on Saturday afternoon. It was in the finale where he stormed from eighth to third, which elevated him to fourth in the points.

Debutant Will Harris took over D'Alberto's FK7 Civic, which he raced alongside brother Brad&'s similar model. Brad scored a best result of eighth over the weekend while Will finished 10th in Race Two.

 

Coppa Italia Turismo

Kevin Giacon, who was racing a new FL5 Civic for the first time, came into the Misano finale ahead in the standings and moved a step closer to becoming champion by qualifying second for the opening race and securing pole position for the finale based on second-best times.

He ran a comfortable second in the opening race but slowed with an engine issue - caused by contact-induced radiator damage - just three laps from the finish. While he did not reach the chequered flag, he was classified 10th and scored a bonus point for fastest lap.

He was unable to start the final race as a result and secured second in both the TCR and Division 1 Championships.