TCR / 21 October 2024

Triple Australian class win for Civic Type R TCR

The Honda Civic Type R TCR took a triple class win, two overall podiums and a pole position as the pace of the JAS Motorsport-built machine was proven in high-level touring car competition on two continents.

 

TCR Australia

Brad and Will Harris dominated the Challenge class at the penultimate round of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park; Brad winning twice and the twin brothers taking their Exclusive Switchboards Wall Racing Civics to a pair of one-two finishes.

Brad's opening-race class victory came in second place overall and he added seventh and fourth-place results across the weekend; his Race Three success also being his 15th Challenge win of 2024.

Will fought for the overall win in Race Two, eventually taking a career-best fourth spot, which was enough to beat Brad to the Challenge win.

Honda Wall Racing's Tony D'Alberto, the 2022 overall champion, qualified well in fourth and finished fifth in the opening race.

But he was forced out of Race Two when two cars made contact and one was speared across the front of his innocent Civic. The damage could not be repaired in time for Race Three, meaning he could not start.

 

TCR World Tour

Esteban Guerrieri closed significantly on the series lead with a strong second-place finish for GOAT Racing at Zhuzhou.

The Argentinian started sixth but was superb in an opening race that began damp but got progressively wetter; Guerrieri passing two rivals in one move late-on to take the spot. He was fifth in Race Two.

He has closed the gap to the series leader from 25 points to 10 with just the Macau finale to go.

Team-mate Marco Butti was one of Race One's stars. Holding 11th spot at one-third distance, he chose to pit for wet tyres under safety-car conditions and was able to climb from 23rd to sixth as conditions became perfect for his rubber.

The JAS Development Driver was again sixth in Race Two while team-mate Dusan Borkovic was 11th twice.

 

TCR China

Martin Xie confirmed his status as the qualifying king with a fourth pole position of the season for the double-header that ran within the World Tour event at Zhuzhou, but the MacPro Racing Team driver's title hopes are virtually over after a frustrating weekend.

He sustained race-ending damage on both days in incidents triggered by World Tour regulars. On each occasion he was running well inside the overall top 10 and leading the China rankings.

His team-mate David Deng was a season’s-best sixth in Race One while Norris Racing duo Victor Chan and Tony Chan repeated Butti's wet-tyre gamble and finished fifth and 11th.

Yun Jie Zhou (Spark Racing) and Siu Ming Man (Evolve Racing) scored best results of 10th and 13th. 

 

TCR China Challenge

Team TRC returned after three rounds away with a single Civic for Tommy Ku, who qualified 15th.

Unfortunately Ku retired on both days; his Race Two elimination coming on the opening lap.

 

Super GT

Team UPGARAGE finished 15th on a frustrating weekend for the NSX GT3 Evo 22 team as their race progress was stymied by a glut of safety-car periods during the second half of the race at Autopolis.

Syun Koide set the sixth-best time in the GT300 class in a qualifying session that was postponed to Sunday morning due to bad weather 24 hours earlier.

However, post-session he was judged to have started his last lap after the chequered flag and his time was removed, meaning the car would start 13th.

Takashi Kobayashi started the race and held 21st when he reached the driver change; UPGARAGE choosing to keep Koide fresh until the final stint in the hope of charging through the field.

He climbed to 15th but was denied any further progress as the race finished under safety-car conditions; most of the final hour being neutralised due to repeated incidents.