Bailey Sweeny targeting international TCR campaign

Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series leader Bailey Sweeny is targeting an international campaign following a near-miss this season.

Sweeny was expected to contest two TCR World Tour rounds, at Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring, with a Hyundai-aligned team but, despite being well down the line to being confirmed, it wasn’t to be.

Now, the young HMO Customer Racing driver is aiming for more next year as he targets an impressive performance when the TCR World Tour arrives on Australian shores at Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst.

“We want to stay in TCR and the pathway is to go overseas,” he said.

“Hyundai has a good pathway to do that with its Junior Driver Program, so we’ll try and exploit that to try to get across to Europe in the years to come.

“The TCR World Tour is where we want to go. We’ve had some pretty big opportunities that we jumped at, but unfortunately got yanked away from us at the last moment.

“It was at the point of where we had the flights booked for the round, so we were definitely committed to it and that’s where we want to go.

“The TCR World Tour is pretty exciting.”

It appears Sweeny is hot property after a stunning maiden season in 2022 where he scored a crushing 10-second victory at Bathurst during Easter, then secured fifth in the title race with another win at the Mountain during the final round.

Sweeny currently holds a 30-point advantage in the standings from HMO Customer Racing team-mate Josh Buchan having achieved five wins driving the older Hyundai i30 N TCR.

“I’ve had two or three of the European Hyundai teams contact me and I’ve also been in discussions with the Customer Racing side at Hyundai Motorsport,” Sweeny revealed.

“Those teams in Europe are searching for drivers in their own championships as well, so if they can find someone that gives them the edge, then it doesn’t matter where they come from.

“That’s what we’re trying to do as well here to making over in Europe.”

The next round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series is combined with the TCR World Tour at Sydney Motorsport Park on November 3-4.