Tom Oliphant has put together his best complete round in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia to date, as the series was joined by the TCR World Tour at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The nine World Tour entries, backed by factory outfits and driven by the world’s best touring car drivers, were not eligible for TCR Australia points – but did inject themselves straight to the front of the fight on the combined grid.
Oliphant was immediately up to pace on Friday, as the fastest ‘local’ driver in Practice 1. His chances in qualifying were diminished when a rain shower popped up as Oliphant was in the pits, leaving him out of position and 18th on the combined grid – ninth in TCR Australia.
The Autoglym Lynk & Co was one of the fastest cars on track in Race 1, as Oliphant expertly fought his way back towards the top 10 in both dry and wet conditions, finishing fourth in TCR Australia and 12th overall.
A slow launch off the line dropped Oliphant to 23rd on the opening lap of Race 2, but that was followed by an outstanding charge to seventh overall. Oliphant finishing ahead of all four of the World Tour Lynk & Co entries, and fourth in the TCR Australia classification. It was another expert display in the weekend’s final race, to finish fifth in TCR Australia and 13th overall.
The combined results saw Oliphant claim fourth in TCR Australia for the round, his best round result of the season so far.
“Overall, really positive weekend for us, we deserved even more from the results,” said Oliphant.
“We had genuine pace this round, and it felt like were competing with the works (Lynk & Co) team in terms of both our race and qualifying pace. Practice was brilliant, we found a lot of good setup direction and heading in to qualifying our target was the first five or six places on the overall grid.
“Then the rain came, and it scuppered our weekend. It cost a lot of drives similarly, and just made our weekend a lot harder. The opening race was so chaotic, and if it had stayed dry, we could have come through even further. From the stall on the grid in race two, to finish seventh, was a mental race. The car was mint and it really showed what we can do, and the pace in the car.
“We were stuck in a competitive train in race three, five international cars and a couple of Aussies, no one was really making any mistakes. It became tough to extract the strong points of our car, in the aero and the brakes.
“We could have had a much different weekend with a bit more luck, but overall massive positives going in to Bathurst,” concluded Oliphant.