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Winton test a validation for Lee Holdsworth
A recent Winton test for Lee Holdsworth and Ashley Seward Motorsport not only verified, but advanced on changes made at the last round of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Utilising the mid-season break ahead of Morgan Park, Holdsworth emerged pleased from the test as he aims to recapture his early season form in the ASM Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR.
“It was nice to get back into it because it’s been a while and it’s actually still a while until we’re racing,” said Holdsworth.
“It was good, we tested a heap of stuff and we had a big program to get through. We haven’t done much testing this year, we had to put that one day at Winton to good use.
“We learnt a lot, which was good. We’ve been wanting to try plenty of stuff throughout the year and had some ideas, which we were able to put into the car to test at Winton.
“We got our heads around a lot of stuff, so feeling confident we’ll make some gains.”
At the test, a key area targeted was the Alfa Romeo’s corner handling, whilst it also gave Holdsworth an opportunity to gain further experienced in his turbocharged hot hatch.
“We just haven’t had enough rotation mid-corner,” Holdsworth elaborated. “We’ve been loose on entry and lacked rotation mid-corner.
“It’s very difficult with these cars to tune that instability out of the car and keep rotation so that’s a bit of a balancing act as I’m finding out.”
Holdsworth started his maiden campaign in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia in fine style by winning his debut race at Symmons Plains, which was backed up by two podium finishes at the venue.
Third in a severely wet opening race at Phillip Island continued a Holdsworth’s strong form, but since this has dropped off due to a combination of mechanical maladies and set-up direction.
However, Holdsworth believed a gain at SMP had been achieved and used the test to confirm this.
“I think we’ve probably lost our way a little bit with set-up the last few rounds and found a direction at the end of the weekend at SMP,” Holdsworth explained.
“We were able to validate that at Winton and try other things to further improve on that because there’s no doubt people have been finding little tweaks on their cars that have made them better each weekend since the start of the year, and we’ve fallen behind on that.
“I guess every time we do a change I’m learning, it’s like going back to school really. You’ve got to re-learn all the secrets to these cars, but hopefully now we’ve got a better read on the car and some tools up our sleeve to work with.”
The next round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series will be held at Morgan Park Raceway in Queensland on August 13-15. CLICK HERE for ticketing information.