Photo: TCR Media

WestCoast Racing expecting tough Shanghai weekend

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WestCoast Racing had a strong debut weekend in Sepang, Malaysia, the curtain raiser of the TCR International Series. American ace Kevin Gleason took a surprising pole position, whereas team-mate Gianni Morbidelli took his Honda Civic TCR to the podium in Race 2 thanks to a spectacular overtaking move over Target Competition’s Andrea Belicchi just at the last corner.

This weekend, however, it all starts over as the series goes to Shanghai, China, for the second event of the year. Part of the Formula One World Championship support package once again, the TCR International Series sees the new success ballast system come into play, with championship leader Stefano Comini 30 kilos ‘overweight’ and Craft-Bamboo Lukoil duo Pepe Oriola and Jordi Gené at +20 and +10 respectively.

This leaves Gianni Morbidelli, WestCoast Racing’s best-placed driver in the standings, lighter than his direct competitors, as the Italian sits fourth with 27 points to his name. The team are in third in the championship, 27 points behind Craft-Bamboo Lukoil.

Team Principal Greger Petersson is cautious over the team’s chances to repeat the strong Malaysian weekend: “If you don’t win, you’re never satisfied. There’s no doubt we made fantastic progress, both in pre-season testing at Barcelona and at the opening round in Malaysia, but I think it will be difficult to repeat the sort of success we had at Sepang, simply because the Shanghai International Circuit is a very different track and the temperatures will be much lower too.”

The lack of track time due to the tight schedule is proving hard to overcome for the Swedish team, especially due to the extensive developement programme carried out by SEAT.

“We’re still in the early stages of development and we’re working extremely hard with the new Honda Civic TCR, going up against some cars that were developed more than a year ago. We don’t really expect to be able to beat the SEATs this time out, but that is definitely our long-term aim. We have to target that.”

Petersson praised the team’s efforts, and is convinced that the Shanghai weekend will be a precious experience to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the newly-built Civic TCR:”There is a good group of guys behind the team and sooner or later, their efforts will yield results. It’s hard to pinpoint where the strengths and weaknesses lie at the moment, but the contrasting challenges of Shanghai will give us more of an insight.”

Gianni Morbidelli, Kevin Gleason and René Munnich will be at the wheel of the three Jas-built Hondas, just like in Sepang.