Sydney night races kicks off TCR World Tour season end marathon
The TCR World Tour field will join TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend as new conditions heats up the title fight and kicks off three consecutive race weekends.
New for the TCR World Tour field in Australia is three race heats per weekend, meaning a lot of crucial points for the tight title fight which is currently between Norbert Michelisz and Yann Ehrlacher.
The two have been closely matched all season and there are just four points separating the two ahead of this weekend.
Lurking behind is Comtoyou Audi driver Rob Huff and Michelisz’s Hyundai team-mate Mikel Azcona, 23 and 27 points behind respectively.
No less than 105 points are up for grabs this weekend, meaning a poor performance in the two Australian rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst could turn things around quickly in the standings.
Adding to the complexity this weekend is that the TCR World Tour drivers race according to the TCR Australia regulations.
The grid for the first race is determined by the results from qualifying which consists of a Q1 session for all cars and a Q2 session for the top ten drivers of Q1.
The grid for the second race is determined by the Race 1 results with the top ten drivers reversed.
The grid for the third and final race is determined by the points gathered in Race 1 and Race 2, and it should be noted that the points scale used for the grid order is TCR Australia’s rather than TCR World Tour’s.
Sydney Motorsport Park also marks the first time TCR World Tour races during night time, with the first race of the weekend starting at 20:40 local time on Friday.
15 cars from TCR Australia makes up for a total grid of 24 cars at Sydney Motorsport Park.
HMO Hyundai driver Bailey Sweeny heads the TCR Australia standings ahead of team-mate Josh Buchan and GRP Peugeot driver Aaron Cameron.
The local drivers of the national championships that have joined the TCR World Tour field this year have so far struggled to match the pace of the world front-runners and it remains to be seen whether the TCR Australia field can change that.
Action on track starts with a shakedown on Friday morning, followed by an intense schedule of two practice sessions, qualifying and the first race.
Schedule*
Friday – 3/11
11:10 – Warm up
13:20 – Free Practice 1
15:50 – Free Practice 2
18:00 – Qualifying
20:40 – Race 1
Saturday – 4/11
16:05 – Race 2
19:55 – Race 3
* = Times in AEDT (+10H CET)
