GRM DROP THE ALFAS

Garry Rogers Motorsport has revealed to AUTO ACTION that it will not run Alfa Romeos in the 2022 TCR Australia Series, downscaling and electing to run just its Renaults and Peugeots.

The Alfa Romeo has been a fast package in the first two seasons of the TCR Australia Series, however due to the development work that GRM has put into the Renaults, the former Bathurst 1000 winning team felt it was the right call.

Garry Rogers Motorsport Team Principal Barry Rogers expressed that as they are the leading Renault TCR team worldwide a lot of work is done within the workshop.

“We’re going to run four Peugeots and then two Renaults,” Rogers told AA.

“We are just dropping back to two brands that logistically makes it a lot easier for us.

“Most people would say ‘wouldn’t you drop the Renault before the Alfa’, but we are quite involved with the homologation team on those Renaults.

“Our ability to do in house maintenance etc, on those cars is a lot simpler, we are able to do a lot more internally, not having to deal with Europe with those cars, we just want to stick with that programme.

“We’ve made a lot of progress with the Renaults, speed wise we’re certainly getting there. Reliability wise, we’ve obviously had gremlins which we’re chipping away at over time.

“We’re pretty confident we’re on top of it, so we’ll stick with the Renaults and go with the four Peugeots.”

Rogers admitted it was a tough decision to make because generally in motorsport you make whatever decision you need to go faster on track.

“Racing is about performance, they’re (the Alfas are) a proven car,” he said.

“Probably a couple of things (swayed the decision), the availability being one.

“I know it doesn’t necessarily matter when you’re not haven’t any factory backing as such, but the relevance of the car in the marketplace has probably fallen away due to the fact you haven’t been able to buy a new Giulietta for a couple of years now.

“I know that doesn’t really make a difference financially to us or anyone else, but I just think we should race something that’s relevant, and the freedoms that we do have with regards to maintenance and all the necessary things that get a race car on the track.

“We’ve got a lot more freedom with the Renault, performance wise, Dylan O’Keeffe put the Renault on pole at Sydney Motorsport Park at the penultimate round last year, James Moffat led three quarters of the final race at Bathurst before he popped a tyre.

“It’s their performance wise, we just need to keep working hard at it and get the Renault where it needs to be (consistently).

“Hopefully in tassie we bounce out with the Renault as good as what the Alfa would have been and we’ve made a good decision, but time will tell.”

Although GRM won’t run any Alfa Romeos, there will still be at least three on the grid in 2022, revealing that Ash Seward Motorsport would loan one of its Alfas.

“Braydan Willmington is running one of our Alfas and then Ash Seward is running one of his Alfas and one he will lease off us,” Rogers explained.

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