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Tilton Racing over gremlins after successful test
Tilton Racing’s Brad Shiels is confident his Hyundai i30 N TCR is cured of its gremlins after a tough introduction to Supercheap Auto TCR Australia.
Currently 10th in the standings, Shiels and Tilton Racing have been constantly chasing engine problems, while leaking shocks discovered after the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park forced the team to switch brands since.
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However, a test on Tuesday proved successful as the i30 N TCR performed faultlessly as Shiels believes the reliability gremlins have been left behind.
“It was good,” remarked Shiels.
“It’s hard to judge where you are in terms of lap time so the real test will be when we’re out on track with everyone else and we can see where we are at, but it was a good day and we got a heap of laps in.”
As revealed last week, Tilton discovered a fault in the shocks it was using and have since changed brand, with Tuesday’s hit out the first opportunity to test the new components.
“We found a problem with the shocks that we originally had in the car, so we changed brands because the Hyundai has two options in that regard,” Shiels explained.
“The first type kept leaking when they got hot, which explained why we were losing our race pace halfway through when the shocks overheated and spewed oil. We’re trying the different brand and they seem to be working quite well, so hopefully we can get a bit more out of it.”
With engine and shock problems now behind Shiels, he is confident all round pace in package will be found quickly as every little bit counts within a closely fought top 10 in the series standings.
“The field is so tight, so if you find a couple of tenths it puts you up the grid a fair way,” said Shiels.
“That’s all we were chasing and also our race pace because we drop back pretty quickly after three or four laps, which the leaking shock was a reason why. If we can keep more constant pace throughout the race, that was one of the big things we were chasing.
“We’ve had a few silly problems happen so far this season, but that’s what happens in your first year.”
Shiels completed a race run and was happy with the results as another test day is not planned before the season restarts.