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Jay Hanson’s journey from flaggie to TCR contender
For Jay Hanson, Sandown ends a three year journey from circuit official to Supercheap Auto TCR Australia contender.
The young gun sits third in the standings and has taken the most wins of any other driver this year so far, but back when TCR Australia debuted at Sandown back in 2019 he was a volunteer official admiring some of his current rivals from a flag post.
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“Last time TCR was actually at Sandown I was a flaggie, so it’ll be cool to be back on the other side of the fence this time,” Hanson said.
“I think it’s a cool track for TCR, it suits those little touring cars for sure and the racing will be awesome. The slipstreaming will be in play along the back and there are plenty of passing opportunities for TCR at Sandown.”
A winner at four different circuits this season, Hanson is confident the Audis will be on the pace, but believes Honda leads the competition based on previous form at the historic venue.
“I think both Audis are going to be quick,” Hanson remarked.
“Obviously, the Hondas were pretty quick last time with Nestor Girolami. I think it’s going to be a good track for us in the Audis and you could say Sandown is a similar track to Queensland Raceway, so I think it might suit us a little bit more due to a few more faster corners.
“This should be a strong track for us.”
Apart from Bathurst where he used a spare older RS3 LMS TCR, Hanson has been fairly consistent at each of the rounds this season as he mounts a serious title challenge, but to do it the young gun may need to break teammate Will Brown’s record for most wins in a season.
“Both breaking the record and winning title would be cool to do, but it’s going to be tough as Tony is obviously consistent and smart,” he analysed.
“In Queensland, we really showed what we need to do for the rest of the season as we finished top three all weekend and took a victory, so we should be aiming to do the same at Sandown.
“We need to focus on qualifying a little bit more and also race starts, which I thin cost me that last race at Queensland Raceway.
“We’ll just work on that, keep being consistent and be on the pace, so we give ourselves every chance.”
The penultimate round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series run with the SpeedSeries will be held at Sandown on September 16-18.