Whitleys TCR Wrap!

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November 18, 2019

Alexandra Whitley

photo credit: Daniel Kalisz

It was the final round of the inaugural TCR Australia Championship over the weekend of the 15th - 17th of November at Australia’s newest Motorsport Precinct. The Bend Motorsport Park in Adelaide, South Australia, which on Friday night won the 2019 Motorsport Facility of the Year! It was our biggest and best field yet with 21 cars and even a professional TCR team from France!

We had a successful weekend after a tough start with engine power issues, the MPC team had the car hooked up, I drove my hardest and we just missed out on a top 10 finish to end the Year.

After blowing up the engine at the previous round, we had a brand new engine put into the car. Unfortunately there were electrical issues, which kept placing engine into limp mode, this meant as we tried to find the source of the problem we had next to no practice. The MPC team eventually got it sorted and we had half a dozen laps before heading into qualifying. We didn’t qualifying as well as I’d wanted, but this didn’t matter as the rules are; when you change an engine you start from the rear of the next race.

Starting 21st for race one I was out to redeem myself, move forward and set up Sundays races. There were a few incidents throughout the race which gave a couple of free passes. We raced forward making some great passes and crossed line in 10th. I worked with my engineer and studied data and footage from team mates to find the few tenths I was missing.

Sunday was a great day, the wind had dropped, it was slightly overcast and the track was fast. I got a good start, the boys were racing rough. They didn’t give a mm and we got pushed around a lot, but I held my ground and we raced forward. On the final lap I was making the move for 9th, when crunch! I was hit from the inside and we were run off the track losing a position in the process. With bent steering we made it through the last few turns and finished 11th. It was a super quick turn-around to the final race. A quick hydrate and straight back in!

The first few laps of the race were tricky, it was very slippery and I lost some ground on the cars in front. I was on used tyres whilst others had new ones. As the race went on they came back to me, I wasn’t giving in that easy! And I was hungry to finish within the top 10. I caught the cars in front and started making passes. My brakes were quickly fading and my pedal was getting longer. I just couldn’t pull the car up and over shot the corner, giving a free pass to the car behind. I gathered it back and kept pushing, eager to catch them. I fought with the car until the end as the brakes got worse and the tyres went off. We made it home in 13th place.

I really enjoyed my weekend at Tailem Bend, I never stopped improving and we showed that we can race just as hard! I finished 15th overall in the championship from a total of 29 drivers.

TCR has been a huge leap forward and I have learned and grown so much over the season. It was days before the first round back in May that TCR Australia and Matt Stone Racing took a chance on me, I was extremely green and had never been to any of the tracks before, but l quickly learned, worked hard and made it! I am extremely grateful for every single opportunity and every single person who has helped me to make each round. Making the rounds has been an achievement in itself. MPC really took me under their wing the last 2 races and Actron Air has backed me from day 1. There are so many people to mention and I can’t thank you all enough for your help and support all throughout the season in good times and bad.

I am now working towards racing TCR New Zealand which kicks off at the end on January, then back to the Australian series. ARG have done a fantastic job marketing and securing some very high profile and exciting races next year such as Bathurst and the Melbourne Grand Prix. It been a privileged to race and work along side the TCR team and I’m excited as to where I’m headed next!

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