Photo: TCR Australia

Chris Pither turns attention to Queensland after missing Race 3 at The Bend

Heavy front-end damage to his Renault Megane TCR forced Chris Pither out of the final TCR Australia series race of the weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver had been running in second place to eventual winner Will Brown but lost the rear of the car under braking for the first corner with just two laps remaining.

Pither was sixth in Saturday’s opening race won by Garth Tander and had looked like challenging Brown for the win following the safety car restart in the second.

But under no pressure from behind, the Renault’s rear wheels locked up approaching Turn 1 which pitched the car left into the concret wall, inflicting heavy damage to the front-end.

Pither said: “I just went down into Turn 1 in the same way as I always did, and I hadn’t made any changes to the brake balance of the rears or anything.

“But for some reason it just grabbed the rears and they locked so aggressively.

“Once it got sideways, I was just a passenger, which is very disappointing as it was the first time all year that I felt like I was in a race.”

GRM Team Manager Bruim Beasley added: “The damage was too extensive to get it ready for Race 3, it’s done the rail and the radiator and it might have got a little hot too.

“So it was best just to park it and get it fixed for Queensland.

“P2 would have been good so it’s disappointing but it’s part of the learning process. We’ve made some good progress and hopefully we go to Queensland and get both of the Meganes on the podium.”