FORMER WRC DRIVER SAMPLES TCR AUSTRALIA CAR

Six-time FIA World Rally Championship event podium finisher Chris Atkinson drove a TCR car for the very first time on the weekend and expressed interest in contesting a round or two in the future.

The former factory Subaru driver jumped behind the wheel of Liam McAdam’s Audi RS3 LMS TCR at Queensland Raceway.

Despite his rally background, Atkinson is familiar to the world of circuit racing, having competed in the Bathurst 12 Hour driving of course a factory Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C.

Atkinson was impressed by the TCR car and expressed interest in competing in a round of the series if the opportunity presented itself.

“I haven’t done much racing lately so it’s definitely something that is on my radar if a good opportunity comes up,” Atkinson said.

“I think the TCRs are the sort of cars that would be great fun racing as well. Super close competition, door-to-door racing would be really cool in them and you see that in the racing as well.

“The speed you get for the lap time, the value is a great level to get into motorsport.”

Although he had done a bit of circuit racing in the past, a front-wheel-drive racing car was a new experience for the New South Welshman.

“I’ve been doing a lot of car tests at Queensland Raceway so we wanted to put a TCR car on there to see how it compared to the road cars we’d been testing,” Atkinson explained.

“I was pretty happy with my pace straight away, but it’d be good to explore it a bit more. It nearly did the same time as I’d done in a GT3RS with a lot less power, so it shows how much performance these TCR cars have. And I think there’s a lot more in it.

“It was good because I’d never tested a race car at Queensland Raceway and it’s funny how the lines are more aggressive as well as the positions you’re able to put the TCR car in compared to a road-going model.

“The fact I could be much later into the corners and wider where a road car doesn’t let you go that far across the track, but the TCR handled it with ease.

“It was impressive.”

McAdam was joined at Queensland Raceway by Luke King, who raced a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi in last year’s series, while fellow Lachlan Mineeff completed laps in his Purple Sector Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

The opening round of the TCR Australia season, Race Tasmania takes place from February 11-13.

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