Bargwanna “shaking” with excitement for TCR World Tour debut

Australia’s Ben Bargwanna is “itching” to take on some of the world’s top touring car drivers in the opening round of the TCR World Tour.

Bargwanna joins a 40-car field for the historic maiden TCR World Tour event at the Algarve International Circuit at Portimao, Portugal this weekend. He will also race at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit in May.

The TCR World Tour is a new championship designed as the highest level of TCR racing in the world, taking over from the FIA World Touring Car Cup and will include Aussie based races at Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst.

Bargwanna will be the only Aussie in the field driving a Burson Auto Parts Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308 TCR and he is full of emotions ahead of his international debut.

“I’m itching, I’m shaking, I’m excited, I’m buzzing, I’m going through all the emotions at the moment, but I’m so stoked,” said Bargwanna.

“It’s going to be one of the best experiences of my life and I can’t wait to go racing, I’m really keen.

The son of 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner Jason Bargwanna said the Portugal round will be the realisation of a dream which arrived when TCR first arrived on Australian shores in 2019 will become a reality.

“As soon as TCR came to Australia, dad and I looked at the overseas possibilities, but even still we’ve been talking about it for years and it’s never felt like it’s been a real opportunity,” the younger Bargwanna said. 

“Then, all of a sudden it is and it seems unreal it’s happening, we’re actually doing this, we’re going overseas to race the best.

“It is a cool feeling especially when I remember watching the first Sydney (TCR Australia) race with dad and just talking about how cool this category looks to now going over to Portugal to take on the world’s best.”

Bargwanna is well aware of the challenge ahead with previous world champions Yann Ehrlacher, Mikael Azcona, Norbert Mischelisz, Thed Bjork and Rob Huff just some of the talent on show in Portugal.

To combat this, the one-time TCR Australia race winner has tapped into the expertise of not only his father, but also Frenchman Teddy Clairet and Australian FIA Motorsport Games representative Aaron Cameron.

“You want to be racing the best of the best and these guys made TCR what it is, these drivers are the superstars of this category,” Bargwanna said.

“It’s going to be cool to shape up against them and hopefully we can mix it up the front, but we’ll have to wait and see. 

“Aaron said they race really hard over there. I also have a good relationship with Teddy and he has helped us get up to speed.

“Dad’s got a bit of overseas experience, where he actually represented Australia alongside Marcos Ambrose and they were only talking about it at dinner only recently.

“I’ll be able to tap into his knowledge, which will be helpful when I get there.”

The TCR World Tour journey will be far from a joyride for Bargwanna, who holds the ambition of collecting enough TCR World Ranking points to qualify for the TCR World Final at the end of the year.

“Our plan is to get invited to the TCR World Final, so the more points we can score the better,” Bargwanna confirmed.

“I think these two Kumho TCR World Tour events I’ll do at Portimao and Spa, in addition to the two local rounds as well as the whole Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series, I will do well in terms of ranking system.

“It’s going to be cool.”

Bargwanna will get acclimatised with two private testing sessions on Thursday before the weekend proper begins with Friday practice.

Qualifying opens Saturday’s action before two races are held at 11.20pm Saturday and 8.30pm Sunday AEST respectively.

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