News
Toyota 86 star tests Audi at The Bend
Toyota 86 driver Liam McAdam tested the #4 Audi RS 3 at The Bend, and is keen to explore his options to compete in the carsales TCR Australia Series in the future.
The 2015 Kumho V8 Series (Super3) champion drove the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi that has been taken to victory by Garth Tander and Jean-Karl Vernay in recent rounds, and now, the Brisbane-based driver is looking at what opportunities might be available to him in the future.
The 22-year-old is a former state and national Formula Ford competitor, winning the 2015 V8 touring car class before driving in selected Super2 in 2015 and 16.
In recent years, McAdam has turned his attention to the competitive one-make Toyota 86 Series, scoring a number of poles and race wins and regularly running towards the front of the field.
McAdam runs a three-car Toyota 86 team (McAdam Motorsport), and said that the positive TCR test has given them some good information for the 2020 season.
“We’re looking at TCR very seriously for 2020,” said Liam McAdam.
“TCR is a great option, internationally and locally, and the cars are really well built.
“We’ve been looking at the class for a while, but the best way to see what they are like is to drive is to just get in there and drive it yourself.
“Liam said it is a very well engineered, sophisticated race car and we are very impressed.
“The guys at MPC are terrific to deal with and it was a great day.
“ The team said It is really up to Liam to decide what he wants to do. As much as we’d like to say yes, there’s a bit of behind the scenes work to do before we lock it in.”
For the test, McAdam’s long-time supporter Veloce Tuning helped make the day happen, hence the branding on the doors and bonnet.
Melbourne Performance Centre managing director Troy Russell said that McAdam was impressive in his maiden TCR drive.
“Liam adapted to the Audi TCR very quickly. He clearly knows what he is doing in a race car,” said Russell.
“He was quickly lapping around the record pace from The Bend event that we had there a couple of months ago, which was impressive to see.
“We’ll continue to talk to Liam and try and work out a way to get him in one of our cars in the future.”
There are more opportunities for drivers to sample the TCR cars, with the category holding a drive and evaluation day on Monday after the upcoming TCR event at Winton Raceway.
Contact TCR category manager Liam Curkpatrick for more information on liam@australianracinggroup.com
In other MPC news, Russell Ingall and Leanne Tander have been confirmed as drivers for the team in the next round of the carsales TCR Australia Series at Winton Raceway, August 30-September 1. A full entry list fo the event will be confirmed soon.