HAZELWOOD ON THE RIGHT TRACK

After getting close to a maiden Trans Am round win, Todd Hazelwood is focusing on the positives and aims to take another step forward at Queensland Raceway.

In just their fourth round in the category, Hazelwood and TFH Racing broke through for their first two wins at The Bend.

The #111 Mustang also crossed the line first in race 1, but lost it due to passing under yellow flags, while a potential round win slipped due to another penalty for a clash with James Moffat in the finale.

Even though he fell just short of a maiden round win, Hazelwood is upbeat and is focused on the good news rather than what could have been.

The new TFH Racing setup has made giant leaps forward each race weekend and Hazelwood now sits equal second in the championship.

Hazelwood, who ended a long drought at The Bend, said the progression made from round to round fills him with lots of optimism.

“From our point of view it was probably the most executed weekend from the team and I all season,” he told Auto Action.

“We had our fair share of mechanical dramas at each race so to bounce back and really show our speed with two dominant victories was really promising and a big shot in the arm.

“Not only for the team but myself as well because I have not had a national series circuit racing win since 2017 so it had been a long time between drinks.

“There had been a lot of frustration built up over that time so to finally get that was a great feeling and it gives me more motivation going forward.

“What has been satisfying is that the team is only six months old and we are already winning races against some big teams.

“We are doing that earlier than anticipated. We have come a long way in a short period of time. we are only going to get better moving forward.”

With Trans Am something new to both driver and team at the start of 2024, Hazelwood is enjoying the challenge with his TFH squad.

“I am really fortunate to be working with some very knowledgable people from a mechanical point of view,” he said.

“Matty Black has a huge amount of experience in the Supercars pit lane and Brad Thomas is great as well.

“There is a great atmosphere of people and we are all hungry and motivated to win.

“We have been trying to refine the car round by round and are starting to get on top of it.

“We don’t have an engineer as such so I have been calling the shots on the set-up which has been really enjoyable challenge.

“It aligns with what go-karts are about because you are fully involved on top of the mechanicals and set-up changes.

“Whereas supercars as a driver you don’t have the same amount of transparency and inclusion as here in Trans Am.

“I am really enjoying that aspect to it and having fun.”

Despite being pleased with how things are progressing, Hazelwood admitted he was a bit mystified about his race 4 penalty.

“To be honest I did not know what the penalty was for, but I will always respect the officials decision,” he said.

“James and I were racing pretty hard into turn 1, he was blocking and borked in the middle of the corner, got off the throttle and I tried to clear the whole kerb to miss him and we made the slightest contact and pressed on.

“I did not get any advantage out of it and I thought it was good hard racing.

“We felt like we had the round win taken away from us in race 4 and did not need any more motivation, so watch this space.

“To lose the round win by a couple of points because of the penalty was disappointing but we will learn from it and get better.”

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