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Tilton Racing’s journey from Time Attack to TCR
Winning the World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park three times running and multiple victories in the Radical Australia Cup form part of an impressive resume for Tilton Racing.
Team owner Kosta Pohurukov decided to make the transition into Supercheap Auto TCR Australia with Brad Shiels this season and since curing a suspension problem recently, the combination of team, driver and car will be one to watch at Bathurst.
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Based in Canberra, Tilton Racing was formed out of Pohurukov passion for motorsport after he set up his successful construction business focused on interiors, facades, doors, carpentry and distribution in 2004.
Hosting client corporate days using two Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIIIs, Tilton began branching out into its own motorsport activities, which then included Radicals.
“It evolved from being for my own joy with a small budget to having good sponsors including MTron, MoTeC and Holinger, which helped along the way,” Pohurukov explained.
Shiels’ involvement is not just through motorsport as he works full-time at Tilton Interiors as a delivery driver and coaches Pohurukov, who participates in the Radical Australia Cup.
“Brad works with me in the Tilton logistics side to all our sites, he drives the trucks around and the transporter too, which kills two birds with one stone,” he explained.
“Plus, he’s my driver trainer, he teaches me in the Radical and I’m always getting data from him.
“He pushes me hard.
“We compare our squiggly lines on the computer screen and at Bathurst in certain spots our braking marks were at a very similar place, the turn-in points as well, so I was really, really happy.
“It’s amazing when you spend enough time with your teammate, who’s teaching you, guiding you and that’s the reason why I ended up opening up Tilton Racing just for my own goal to see if it’s possible to be at the pointy end with the right guidance.”
Tilton Racing’s decision to join the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series was spurred on by the success of HMO Customer Racing in the category’s inaugural season locally.
“Barry (Morcom, HMO Customer Racing team owner) is a very smart man,” said Pohurukov.
“He rarely talks business and talks race cars a lot so it was relatively easy to tag along with that idea, so it made sense because HMO Customer Racing won it.
“It was a no brainer to go down that path.”
Its Hyundai i30N TCR features one of the more eye-catching liveries on the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia grid, but as Pohurukov reveals it was a fairly simple concept.
“I chose that lighter blue to be a shade lighter than the European TCR Hyundai colour scheme and I superimposed our Tilton cross logo all over the car – not spamming – but just here and there,” he explained.
“It looks like it’s been showered by the Tilton stars.
“As for the yellow, in the mirror of another car you see the bright blue and the yellow makes it look like a mouse.”
In another development, a new workshop for Tilton Racing will be completed in April, providing a one stop shop for all its programs.