News
Alfa quartet lock out first practice
Lee Holdsworth has led an Alfa Romeo 1-2-3-4 in the opening practice session of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series this morning at Symmons Plains Raceway.
On his first official session behind the wheel of the Ashley Seward Motorsport prepared entry, Holdsworth edged out the Garry Rogers Motorsport Giuletta of Jordan Cox, teammate Jay Hanson and Valvoline Racing GRM’s Michael Caruso in an incident-free 25-minute session.
Holdsworth’s best lap of 55.7559s was just 0.144s quicker than Cox, the four Italian-built cars split by less than four-tenths.
“The car came out pretty good out of the box,” said Holdsworth.
“Still a couple of things that [we] really need to tidy up, also a little bit in my driving, but so far, so good. The good thing is, we’ve got some stuff to work on and hopefully improve for next session.
“I think the first couple of laps will be very entertaining for people to watch,” he added as he cast an eye towards tomorrow’s first race. The rear tyres take forever to come on, so I’ll be skating around everywhere until we get some tyre temp and that’s taking up to five laps.
“So, it’s going to be a while, first few laps, and it’ll be good fun. The times are really close, so I imagine qualifying’s going to be really tough.”
The pair of HMO Customer Racing Hyundai I30N entries were next: Nathan Morcom ahead of impressive rookie Josh Buchan, the pair just 0.5 seconds from the fastest time.
Two Audi’s were next: Chaz Mostert in front of Luke King in seventh and eighth respectively, while Jason Bargwanna (Burson Auto parts Peugeot 308 TCR) and the Tilton Racing Hyundai I30 of Brad Shields completed the top-10.
The top 13 cars were covered by exactly one second: Honda Wall Racing’s John Martin exactly one second from the outright pace.
Martin’s Honda Wall Racing teammate Tony D’Alberto was a lowly 16th position.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series cars will tackle a second session at 1:25pm local time.
CLICK HERE for Practice 1 results.