Learning the name of the game after opening day in Sydney

‘Learning’ was the most popular word in the paddock following the opening day of practice for the TCR Australia Series.

Despite the 17 entrants completing a combined 1,447 kilometres and 371 laps of Sydney Motorsport Park, the theme in the garages following practice was broadly the same; teams and drivers coming to terms with a field of very new racing cars, some of them with varied results.

One-make Porsche racers Michael Almond and Dylan O’Keeffe topped the charts across a pair of 30-minute sessions on Friday; Almond 0.14s faster in his Hyundai i30 N than O’Keeffe’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

John Martin was third in his Honda Civic Type R while all eight manufacturers represented on the grid featured in the top-ten combined times from the first two official sessions.

While 2.2 seconds covered the top-ten cars across both sessions, most in the paddock expect the margin to condense in qualifying on Saturday.

Drivers both new and experienced battled to come to terms with their cars across Friday’s two sessions with the pressure only set to ratchet up quickly as the field charges straight into qualifying and race one on Saturday.

Wall Racing Honda driver Tony D’Alberto can count himself as one of the most experienced drivers on the grid this weekend – but said that even he spent the day coming to terms with his new ride.

“Every session were learning things – even little things like tyre pressures and thigs like that. We just don’t have a base line here.. or anywhere really. We’re taking every session as it comes and trying to get as much info as possible,” he told TouringCarTimes.com.

“(Team-mate) John (Martin) is doing a really good job and I probably need to pick up my socks a bit. Obviously it’s very different to what I am used to but it’s just about learning the limits of the car. Especially through the high speed stuff, how much it will cop without going over the limit and risking the car too much on day one… Just learning how to drive, what gears to run – it’s just so different. I can’t explain how different it is.

“Overnight I’ll have a think about it and hopefully come back tomorrow with a few ideas about how to go quicker.”

In a day dominated by Hyundai i30 N entries – the Korean cars finished 1-2-4 in the first session and first and fourth in the second – the DJR Team Penske Supercars enduro co-driver said he was content that his Honda was already up to the task.

“It seems like the Honda, parity-wise, is pretty good. It’s near the front,” he said. “I think there’s probably a couple that are perhaps a little better than us.. but we probably haven’t got the most out of it just yet.”

Both Wall Racing Civic entries were forced to stop in practice two with tyre issues, the right-front in particular always well-used across a lap of Sydney Motorsport Park’s fast and flowing 3.9km anti-clockwise layout.

D’Alberto said that while the team weren’t totally sure what caused the failure, he was content it was part of the learning process.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “We tried to be really kind to the tyre on the warm-up process but I did a tyre and on the very next lap John did a tyre at almost exactly the same spot so like I said, we need to work though it and manage things a bit differently tomorrow.”

A promising day for Alfa Romeo fans saw young Melbourne driver Dylan O’Keeffe second overall aboard his Ash Seward Motorsport-prepared entry.

Running as a satellite operation to the three-car Garry Rogers Motorsport team – that includes another Alfa and a pair of Renault Megane entries – O’Keefe said he spent much of his day experimenting with his No. 9 ASM entry.

“The first practice as a bit ordinary trying to get used to the track,” he said. “High speed, the car felt pretty good, but slow speed we got heaps of wheelspin – so come practice two we changed the philosophy a bit: We tried to put some extra weight over the front to get some extra drive – which didn’t work at all!

“We came in and made a change and with green front tyres on we found two seconds. We found that at Winton during the test we were fighting the car a bit and we made one change and it fixed the car completely.

“The guys are doing a great job and thinking logically and hopefully we can get a good crack at pole tomorrow.”

The Victorian driver made his Super2 Supercars series debut this year, having spent the previous three years in one-make Porsche competition.

With TCR Australia utilising the same tyre supplier – and very similar specification tyres – as the local Porsche series, O’Keeffe explained that gaining confidence in the package was one of the easier attributes of his practice day at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“Any car that gives you the confidence to push is good: The car has a lot of grip like the Porsche, with the same tyre,” he said. “It’s got more aero than the Porsche as well I’m finding that you can push really hard, especially through turn one. I was running sixth through there which means you carry a lot of speed – it’s almost GT-spec – we don’t carry the top speed but it shows the mid corner.

“That was confidence inspiring. I find it’s like driving a go-kart – I’m left foot braking and it’s realty comfortable to drive.”

Qualifying and the opening race of the TCR Australia Championship will be streamed live via the series official website on Saturday.