Lee Holdsworth tops Symmons Plains practice as Alfa Romeo dominate
Lee Holdsworth was fastest in both practice sessions of the TCR Australia series season opener at Symmons Plains, with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCRs locking out the top positions.
“The car came out pretty good out of the box,” said Holdsworth.
“The times are really close, so I imagine qualifying’s going to be really tough.”
The Ashley Seward Motorsport driver lapped the circuit in 55.7559 and was 0.1444 seconds ahead of Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Jordan Cox.
Jay Hanson, team-mate to Holdsworth was third fastest and Michael Caruso, GRM team-mate to Cox, was fourth, making it an Alfa Romeo 1-2-3-4.
Nathan Morcom and Josh Buchan were the fastest non-Alfa drivers in fifth and sixth position respectively, driving HMO Customer Racing-prepared Hyundai i30 N TCRs.
Supercars front-runner Chaz Mostert was seventh fastest for Melbourne Performance Centre, six tenths from the top time.
Holdsworth was again fastest in the second session, this time beating team-mate Hanson by close to three tenths of a second.
Cox claimed position three, just 0.0260 seconds behind Hanson, while privateer Hyundai driver Brad Sheils broke in to the top four, 0.2930 seconds from Holdsworth’s time.
Mostert improved to fifth with his Audi RS 3 LMS, just under four tenths of a second from the top time, while Caruso rounded off the top six.
Qualifying is next up for the TCR Australia field, starting at 14:15 local time tomorrow.
