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Ben Bargwanna – Macau is bizarrely unique
Macau is a legendary circuit and Ben Bargwanna experienced what it was all about in 2023.
Competing in a variety of Kumho TCR World Tour events during the season, Macau has traditional been the grand finale for 20 years and Bargwanna was able to tackle the historic circuit.
Driving a Team Clairet Peugeot 308 TCR against the world’s best was a great challenge for Bargwanna, but provided memories for a lifetime.
“Macau is honestly one of the coolest places on planet earth,” said Bargwanna.
“When I watched a few videos I thought this was pretty cool, but then I turned a lap around it and it blew my mind behind explanation.
“How close the walls are, how much undulation there is, it is phenomenal and I can’t even describe it. You need to go there and experience it because it is unlike any racetrack anywhere. It’s pretty cool, but definitely an eye-opening circuit that’s for sure.
Describing the circuit doesn’t do it justice and Bargwanna is still in awe at what it offers.
“It’s bizarrely unique,” Bargwanna summarised.
“It has five sectors, which not many circuits have that.
“The first sector feels like a normal racetrack due to it being wide open, then barrelling down under the bridge it is walls left and right. This is before you hit a section of the track where two cars can’t physically fit through there side-by-side, then there’s the hairpin where the reference point is the outside wall and go full lock on the steering wheel, which is followed coming back along the water.
“There is just so much to process, but it’s got a mixture of everything.”
Even before hitting the circuit in his Peugeot, the track walk did provide its own unique challenges due to it being an open public road when racing is not scheduled.
“Team Clairet, which fielded my entry, had never been there before, so there was six kids in a candy store not knowing where to look,” Bargwanna described.
“The funny thing about the track walk in Macau is pretty much the second it stops being used for racing it goes back to public roads, so we did it in the midst of peak hour traffic.
“We’re walking around the track, which is situated on a mountain in Macau and we’re walking around blind corners, with locals on scooters or bikes doing ‘purple sectors’.
“It was just crazy.”
However, Bargwanna explained its a bucket list event for not just drivers, but fans as well just to experience how motorsport crazy this part of the world is.
“Everywhere you look it is so different compared to anywhere else in the world, but going there is cool to just walk around and just experience what it’s like,” he said.
“Racing at Macau was amazing, but if you’re a fan of motorsport, it’s one of the best events you can ever go to.
“As a whole, it’s just awesome.”
The opening round of the 2025 TCR Australia Series is at Carco.com.au Raceway on June 6-8.