Photo: TCR

TCR Australia grid set to grow at Winton

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The grid for the TCR Australia series is set to grow for the third round of the season at Winton Raceway next month.

Only 13 cars have competed in each of the two events run so far at Symmons Plains and Phillip Island, marking the smallest fields since the series was launched back in 2019.

At least one new name is set to appear on track for the next round of the season in the shape of Clay Richards – son of five-time Bathurst winner Steven and grandson of four-time Australian Touring Car Championship winner Jim.

Richards has competed this season in the Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia Scholarship Series and in the Toyota GAZOO Racing New Zealand 86 Series and will be appearing in TCR competition for the first time as part of the Melbourne Performance Centre line-up.

“I’m stoked to be able to share that I’ll be competing at the third round of the Australian TCR Championship at Winton onboard a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3,” he said.

“This is such an awesome opportunity and I can’t thank Shannons, Penrite, Melbourne Performance Centre and KMB Motorsport enough for making this possible.”

Whilst it remains to be seen whether Richards will compete in further events, the grid could also be swelled with the addition of a third Hyundai for the HMO Customer Racing team.

The team ran three cars last season for Nathan Morcom, Bailey Sweeny and Josh Buchan but dropped down to two cars this year – with Sweeny continuing in an older i30 N TCR and Buchan at the wheel of the Elantra N TCR that debuted in the series late last year.

The pair have scored two wins apiece so far and the team remains open to running a third car should the right opportunity come up.

“We scaled back to a two-car operation for the start of the 2023 season, but we are open to running a third car again to help launch the career of another champion of the future,” chief engineer Rob Benson said. “We have a car with race-winning pedigree at the workshop and top-level engineering resources at our disposal.”

“It goes without saying that any decision to run three cars again would have to be under the right conditions with the right driver that contributes to the team and doesn’t compromise our ambitions to provide Josh and Bailey with the best chance of winning races and the 2023 TCR Championship.

“While we don’t have any plans in place to talk about today, we are certainly open to the idea.”