News

1 September 2019 | Featured

Will Brown gives his dad perfect Father’s Day gift

Young Will Brown gave his father Shane the best possible Father’s Day gift when he handed him a pair of first place trophies after the carsales TCR Australia Series weekend at Winton.

Brown swept both Sunday races after a runner-up run on Saturday from Pole Position to cement himself in top spot at the top of the championship table, with a 116-point margin over Dylan O’Keefe with just six races to run in the inaugural series.

Brown set a new record for a winning TCR margin when he romped home by 10.74 seconds with his Hyundai i30N in the final heat, refusing to slow down to improve the show or give his rivals a break.

“I’m not going to slow down? Why should I?,” said Brown.

Jason Bright and Aaron Cameron shared the seconds from the Sunday stoushes in Volkswagen Golfs, with veteran Russell Ingall moving up steadily and stealthily through the weekend for the final podium place in Race 3 with an Audi RS3.

“The car gets better as the races go on. I’m really enjoying myself,” said Ingall, who was also happy to rate his young rivals.

“It’s good to see young drivers coming along. If they were imbeciles I would tell you.”

Bright blew his chance for a second run to second when he stalled at the start of Race 3 in his Volkswagen Golf, eventually trailing home in 12th after starting from the front row.

“I got a good jump and then it just stalled.  I hit every wrong button – the wipers, the pitlane speed limiter, the radio – while I was trying to re-start,” said Bright.

“Luckily no-one hit me. And the car was fast. We just have to keep it like that for the next race at Sandown.”

Brown is now clearly the driver to beat in TCR but his closest title rival, Dylan O’Keefe, has an Alfa Romeo Giulietta that has plenty of top speed for Sandown and he was out of luck at Winton including an unlucky puncture.

“I need to get back up there. I was moving forward, but …,” said O’Keefe.

Winton was a sub-par weekend for the Honda Civic drivers, as Tony D’Alberto could only finish sixth after three heats as he and John Martin were mostly towards the bottom of the top 10.

Chris Pither and James Moffat in Renault Meganes had even worse troubles, with Moffat hit by problems with the car’s drive-by-wire throttle and Pither finishing Race 2 in a wall.

For Brown, the plan now is to finish the championship with more wins and, even though he knows his Hyundai will be out-paced on the Sandown straights and will also be carrying success ballast, he is confident.

“I’m loving every second. There are always more boxes to tick,” Brown said.

“You can never get ahead of yourself. There are still six races to go. We’ll see what happens.”

Results, Race 3

Pos Num Driver Team Car Laps Time
1   30 William Brown (Qld)     HMO Customer Racing            Hyundai i30N         18 25:36.7520
2    2 Aaron Cameron (Vic)     Melbourne Performance Centre   Volkswagen Golf GTI  18 25:47.4925
3  100 Russell Ingall (Qld)    Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            18 25:48.6514
4   11 Nathan Morcom (NSW)     HMO Customer Racing            Hyundai i30N         18 25:58.2586
5   50 Tony D’Alberto (Vic)    Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   18 26:01.4372
6   24 John Martin (NSW)       Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   18 26:04.0364
7  777 Andre Heimgartner (NZ)  Kelly Racing                   Holden Astra         18 26:07.2214
8    9 Dylan O’Keeffe (Vic)    Ashley Seward Motorsport       Alfa Romeo Giulietta 18 26:07.9824
9    3 Leanne Tander (Vic)     Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            18 26:10.3471
10  62 Hamish Ribarits (Vic)   Kelly Racing                   Holden Astra         18 26:12.3552
11  38 Tim Brook (NSW)         Wall Racing                    Honda Civic Type R   18 26:13.9717
12   8 Jason Bright (Vic)      Taskforce / Alliance Autosport Volkswagon Golf GTI  18 26:16.6144
13  34 James Moffat (Vic)      Garry Rogers Motorsport        Renault Megane RS    18 26:19.3618
14  35 Alexandra Whitley (Qld) Alliance Autosport             Volkswagon Golf GTI  18 26:24.0932
15  97 Liam McAdam (Qld)       Melbourne Performance Centre   Audi RS 3            18 26:37.9190
DNF   6 Molly Taylor (NSW)      Kelly Racing                   Subaru WRX STi       15 22:10.2359
DNF  37 Bryce Fullwood (NT)     Kelly Racing                   Subaru WRX STi       11 16:12.8926
DNF   7 Jordan Cox (NSW)        Garry Rogers Motorsport        Alfa Romeo Giulietta  3  4:44.0271

Series Standings

Pos Driver Points
1  William Brown     538
2  Dylan O’Keeffe    422
3  Tony D’Alberto    393
4  Nathan Morcom     386
5  Aaron Cameron     379
6  James Moffat      315
7  John Martin       302
8  Jason Bright      284
9  Russell Ingall    275
10 Leanne Tander     220
11 Alex Rullo        209
12 Jordan Cox        179
13 Garth Tander      176
14 Andre Heimgartner 166
15 Alexandra Whitley 164
16 Chris Pither      158
17 Hamish Ribarits   118
18 Molly Taylor      116
19 Jimmy Vernon       77
20 Michael Almond     74
21 Chelsea Angelo     56
22 Liam McAdam        47
23 Tim Brook          46
24 Jordan Michels     46
25 Jean-Karl Vernay   42
26 Rik Breukers       40
27 Bryce Fullwood     10
28 Aaron Seton         0