Shipping delays cuts The Bend weekend from three to two races

The FIA TCR World Tour organisation has confirmed that there will be two instead of three races at The Bend this weekend due to delays in shipping.

The eleven race cars were originally scheduled to arrive at The Bend throughout Monday and Tuesday, but will instead be delivered to the Australian circuit on “late Friday afternoon into the evening”.

This means that the two free practice sessions originally scheduled for Friday will be cancelled and qualifying will be moved to Saturday morning.

Two 13-lap races will be held “across the weekend” instead of the originally planned three 30-minute races on Saturday and Sunday, with a detailed final schedule yet to be released for the joint FIA TCR World Tour and TCR Australia field.

“This is motorsport theatre at its rawest and most passionate,” said Marcello Lotti, WSC President.

“The commitment of our teams and drivers means fans will get to witness not just the racing, but the extraordinary human effort it takes to put world championship cars on the grid. This is the heart and soul of motorsport — and we will literally build these cars overnight.”

This means that the teams will race against time to prepare the cars after the late delivery of the shipping containers in order to get them ready for qualifying.

“This is a race against time, with crews building cars through the night under lights in the Skidpan,” said Alistair MacDonald, CEO of Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.

“Our 3,000 campers and fans alike are welcome to watch the drama unfold. It evokes memories of Bathurst 1983 when Dick Johnson and his team famously rebuilt a car overnight just to make the start line. That same drama and passion will be on show here in South Australia this weekend.”