Kody Garland is hoping to take a benefit from his recent experience at Queensland Raceway, in the Aussie Racing Cars, as he prepares for round four of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia this weekend at the Ipswich venue.
Garland enters round four of the TCR Australia season still hunting for an unhindered weekend, after battling damage and handling issues across the opening half of the year. The Motor Traders’ Association of New South Wales and Valvoline backed driver will draw on recent mileage gained around Queensland Raceway from a visit to the circuit with the Aussie Racing Cars earlier in the year.
The Queensland round in Aussie Racing Cars was an impressive one for Garland who, until being forced off the track on the final lap of the weekend, was set to take the round win after two podium finishes across the weekend.
The most recent round of TCR Australia had Garland fighting on the backfoot, after being on the receiving end of lap one contact and damage in the weekend’s first two races. A storming drive in race three allowed Garland to showcase the speed that had been masked by the damage, as he battled from 14th on the grid to finish in seventh.
Since then, Garland has made his debut in S5000 where he impressed early on in the weekend, despite facing a steep learning curve when racing with push-to-pass and in an open wheel car for the first time.
“I’m just looking forward to it to be honest,” said Garland.
“Last year in the Renault we were actually really competitive until we had some car issues, so I’m hopeful the team will have been able to transfer that speed across to the Peugeots. I went up with the Aussie Racing Cars and had a strong weekend, obviously in a pretty different car, but just to have that confidence is great.
“The track is really hard on brakes, so we’ll need to be managing that aspect and then just trying to maximise on the exits as well so we can get away down the straights, I really enjoy racing around QR. If we can roll out of the truck and be in a comfortable window from the outset, that will be half the battle, and then just trying to avoid getting run into on the opening lap again.
“A clean weekend is really what we’re hoping for, it’s been little things that have hampered us at every round so far, and a lot of potential pace and results have gone awry,” concluded Garland.
Garland will hit the track from August 11-13, with all three races live on Stan Sport, as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.
Weekend Schedule
Friday:
11:40am – Practice 1
3:05pm – Practice 2
Saturday:
11:45am – Qualifying
4:15pm – Race 1*
Sunday:
12:45pm – Race 2
4:20pm – Race 3
BOLD = Live on Stan Sport
* = Live & Free on the Nine Network (check local guides)