News
Overseas opportunities a key attraction to TCR
Rising star Ben Bargwanna has revealed his aims to race in the highest level of touring car competition internationally as he prepares to continue his Supercheap Auto TCR Australia campaign at Queensland Raceway.
Bargwanna endured a tough run at Sydney Motorsport Park, which dropped him from fourth to 10th in the standings as the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series entered its mid-season break.
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Racing the Burson Auto Parts Peugeot 308 TCR prepared by Garry Rogers Motorsport, Bargwanna has scored three podiums this season scoring a best of second at Phillip Island, just falling short in replicating father Jason’s victory last year.
Revealing his WTCR aspirations on the Parked Up podcast, Bargwanna explained his interest was piqued when GRM teammate Dylan O’Keeffe entered as a Wildcard at Zolder in 2020 in a Vukovic Motorsport Renault Megane RS TCR.
“A few years ago, Dylan O’Keeffe went over to Europe and raced WTCR at Zolder, and I watch that weekend from start-to-finish,” said Bargwanna.
“It lit a fire in me and I want to race these cars against the best of the best.
“Every time there’s a WTCR or TCR Europe race, dad and I are sitting there watching it. We’re always talking about the drivers and how the cars are placed, but it would be unreal to race against some of best drivers the world has to offer to see where I stand.”
Father Jason shares his son’s enthusiasm regarding the opportunities presented by TCR globally as the season-ending Supercheap Auto Bathurst International is expected to attract some overseas drivers.
“I think the TCR platform creates some opportunities,” said Bargwanna senior. “Racing at a world level, I mean ultimately that could be the best goal you could achieve.
“You could go race WTCR and we’ve seen it over the years with World Cups, even back to when Paul Radisich won it, it was something I though was pretty impressive.
“TCR is a platform that can provide an opportunity for Ben, it is on our radar to see if we can make it happen and there’s always that back of the mind feeling if at some stage the WTCR guys may come over here play here at Bathurst.
“If they do, you can step up and play at the top level.”
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia returns to action at Queensland Raceway on August 5-7 as part of the SpeedSeries.