Tom Oliphant has expressed his optimism after the maiden weekend for Ashley Seward Motorsport’s new Lynk & Co in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia.
The Autoglym entry was consistently one of the fastest cars across the weekend at Phillip Island, with an immediate impression in qualifying as Oliphant went second fastest in Q1. The British driver went on to qualify in sixth place in Q2.
Due to a penalty for a preceding car, Oliphant started from fifth position for race one of the weekend, but a tricky start saw the #115 drop back on the opening lap. A top five result was still on the cards after a strong recovery, however a tyre failure led to Oliphant finishing two laps down in 10th – and later classed as a DNF due to a penalty.
The post-race penalty denied Oliphant a pole position start in the reverse top 10 grid for race two. Instead, the Autoglym entry lined up 11th on the grid. Oliphant again expertly made his way through the field to finish in eighth place, the drive was highlighted by strong race pace on par with the front running cars.
With combined points from qualifying and the opening two races setting the race three grid, Oliphant was again tasked with starting from 11th for the finale. A slow-moving car in front hampered the Lynk & Co’s getaway and Oliphant again had to carve through from the back of the field. Oliphant was able to steer the Autoglym entry up to ninth place, again setting some of the fastest laps of the race.
“First round out with a new car is always challenging, but overall, I’m really pleased with the speed the Lynk & Co showed,” said Oliphant.
“We didn’t get as much running as we’d have liked at the test day, so we were still learning with each session this weekend. The team found a great setup for qualifying, and the car had the pace to be on the front row, I just didn’t quite nail it in the second part of the session.
“The race starts did not help us, the Lynk & Co has a different way of getting off the line compared to the other cars, and we couldn’t quite get it working with the usual method. I think we made it better in race three, but that was tough to determine because we got held up by a stalled car in front.
“Our race pace was incredibly quick, it was just tough to pass. We were one of the only cars that were able to consistently move forward after the opening lap. (Josh) Buchan won two races, but he couldn’t get near us in race two, which says a lot about our car speed.
“The Lynk & Co rotates really well and felt very strong on the brakes so that gives me good confidence that we can be quick at the tighter circuits like Winton as well,” concluded Oliphant.
Oliphant and the Lynk & Co will be back in action for round two of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia from June 9-11 at Winton Raceway.