FRUSTRATED BUCHAN RUES PHILLIP ISLAND SETBACK

HMO Customer Racing driver Josh Buchan has identified an unsuccessful qualifying strategy as the catalyst for a nightmare TCR Australia Series round which saw him drop from the lead to 11th in the standings.

Buchan did not grace the top 10 all weekend, running in the rear half of the field after ending up 17th in qualifying with a 1m 37.592s lap on Saturday.

From there he was chasing his tail, failing to finish in Race 1 before coming home 19th and 14th in the final two encounters.

The woes were not limited to his Hyundai i30N TCR machine – all three HMO Hyundai’s struggled to make an impact at the Island circuit.

Rookie Bailey Sweeny was 11th in the round standings, while Nathan Morcom ended up 13th as Buchan ranked 20th, above only Michael Clemente.

“Not one of the better days in sport, that’s for sure,” Buchan told AUTO ACTION.

“Look, we did it to ourselves. We tried to outsmart ourselves a little bit in qualifying.

“In hindsight, it’s the better thing to do but if you don’t qualify well in this category, it shows, so we were down the back early and just stayed there.

“We all did the same thing. If it paid off, we would have looked like legends. I think that was the idea but hey, that’s car racing. Some days you’re the hero and some days you’re not.”

Particularly frustrating for Buchan was the fact that the Hyundai’s were running strong and were at a track that has traditionally suited them.

“There was really nothing wrong with the car, it was fast, practice, it was good. We tested before the event, it was good. It was good in Race 3,” Buchan said.

“PI is one of our stronger tracks and that’s what’s so frustrating, we missed it.

“It’s just hard to get through such a tight field when there’s a 0.1s difference in cars.

“If we were at the front of the field, then I’ve got no doubt we would have stayed there. If you start from the back it’s hard to claw your way with our balance in the car not being such a straight line car.

“If we reset and did this weekend tomorrow, I’m sure it’d be very different.”

The TCR Australia Series heads to Mount Panorama next for the Bathurst 6 Hour event in mid-April, before remaining in New South Wales for the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships round at Sydney Motorsport Park at the end of May.

Buchan was confident that both him and the HMO squad would produce a quick turnaround in results, keen to put the woes of Phillip Island behind them.]

“Bathurst not so much but Eastern Creek we know we can go well there so I’m eagerly anticipating getting to another round,” Buchan said.

“Definitely looking forward to moving on to the next one.”

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