Early contact and subsequent damage halted Kody Garland’s charge towards the top five in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia, on a weekend where the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver felt a season-best comfort in his Peugeot 308.
Garland started on the back foot due to a driveshaft failure at the start of practice one, leaving the #41 on the sidelines for the entirety of the session. The Motor Traders’ Association of New South Wales and Valvoline backed driver wasted no time in catching up however, going sixth fastest in practice two.
Saturday saw Garland cruise in to the second part of qualifying for the first time since Symmons Plains, going on to earn himself ninth on the grid. In race one Garland had moved up to eighth and was positioning himself strongly for race two’s reverse top 10 grid. Contact from behind pushed Garland off the track late in the race however, knocking him down to 12th.
Starting from outside the top 10 in race two, Garland launched off the line well and had picked up six places inside the opening two laps of the race to join the battle for the podium places. Light contact with another car while making the move in to the top five knocked the undertray loose on the #41, triggering a significant loss of downforce. That disadvantage saw Garland fall back to finish in 11th, with a severe lack of turn in due to the lost aero performance. In the final race of the weekend, Garland steadily picked up places to bring home a ninth place result.
“I’m quite pleased with the speed we showed this weekend, but pretty frustrated that our results were taken out of our hands again,” said Garland.
“The team prepared a great car, and the Peugeot felt the best it has all season. In the first race, we were just trying to get through cleanly and set ourselves up for the reverse grid but unfortunately, we copped a big hit from a diving car which pushed us off. It buckled the rims and damaged the splitter, so we were lucky to even finish the race.
“I’d say my race two start was the best I’ve ever had in TCR, it all came together nicely, and we were looking at a great top five result but the lightest touch in the wrong place knocked our undertray loose. It was dragging for most of the race before it finally fell off. I just had no turn or grip with the front end after that, so it was a case of surviving to bring it home from there.
“By the time race three came around the tyres weren’t in the best shape, that loss of downforce for most of race two hadn’t helped, so it was pretty tough to move forward. I’m glad we managed to finish all three races at least, so we collected some points. We certainly deserved to be a lot further up the field though, unfortunately we can’t control everything and getting wiped out in race one set us back for the rest of the round.
“I couldn’t be more excited for the World Tour rounds, we should have a great field and it’s going to be cool to see how we stack up against the best of the best in TCR racing,” concluded Garland.
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia returns on November 3-4 when the series is joined by the TCR World Tour at Sydney Motorsport Park, doubling as round six of the TCR Australia season.