News
Lynk & Co makes track debut at Phillip Island today
Tom Oliphant has given the Lynk & Co 03 TCR its maiden Australian track appearance at Phillip Island today.
As part of a test day at the famous Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, the British driver stepped into the Ashley Seward Motorsport-run car, which made its maiden appearance on-track.
The Lynk & Co built by Cyan Racing in Sweden on behalf of Chinese manufacturer Lynk & CO will debut its full livery prior to the second round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Phillip Island in two weeks time.
Oliphant completed an initial run in the new Lynk & Co and was suitably impressed with the potential of his new weapon.
“It feels awesome,” Oliphant said.
“The differences between this compared to the Alfa Romeo are night and day. It is a proper race car, they’ve clearly spent a lot of time and money developing it. It is really responsive and you can feel everything the car is going to do.
“The way I’m describing it to the engineers is instead of reacting to what’s going on like in the Alfa, I’m more predicting what’s going to happen driving the Lynk & Co.
“It’s all really positive at the moment, we haven’t really changed anything with the car, we’re just trying to get used to it.”
Oliphant sits fifth after the opening round, having competed in ASM’s Alfa Romeo. The Brit believes the new car will give him a strong chance of maintaining, or even advancing his way through the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series standings.
“The Audis will be quick again at Phillip Island with its long, sweeping corners, which I imagine will favour a long wheelbase car,” Oliphant predicted.
“I’ve got a piece of machinery underneath me now that I can really compete with. I’ve got a car now that I can use every tool at its disposal and I feel really, really confident I can race with the frontrunners.”
Other TCR entries testing at Phillip Island today include Aaron Cameron’s Valvoline Team GRM Peugeot 308 TCR and Zac Soutar’s latest generation Tufflift Racing Audi RS 3 TCR.
The second round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series will be held at Phillip Island as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on May 12-14.