Coulthard back for SMP TCR round

Fabian Coulthard’s return to the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia field this weekend has been confirmed, after COVID forced him out of the previous round.

Coulthard has been a round-to-round proposition in the series and, while he was a multi-race winner in Round 2 at Phillip Island, he had to sit out the Bathurst 6 Hour event when he became infected with coronavirus.

However, he will be back in the Stan Sport Wall Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR for Round 4 at Sydney Motorsport Park, when Supercheap Auto TCR Australia will have its first night race.

While the New Zealander was out of action, Wall team-mate Tony D’Alberto extended his series lead to 37 points, with Liqui Moly Team MPC Audi driver Will Brown arriving in Sydney as his nearest rival in the title race.

The other notable news in the Melbourne Performance Centre camp is that Jay Hanson is back in his latest-specification Audi RS 3 LMS TCR, which was sidelined at Bathurst last month after he crashed in practice.

Hanson reverted to a spare but will saddle up in the car which he has already driven to two race wins this year, at Symmons Plains and Phillip Island.

The field also includes last year’s Eastern Creek race winners, namely HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan in one of five Hyundai i30 N TCRs on the entry list, and Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Michael Caruso in the Auto Glym Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR.

Practice takes place this Friday, with Saturday night’s opening race live on 9Gem.

All of the weekend’s TCR qualifying sessions and the three races can be seen live and ad-free on Stan Sport.

Entry list: Round 4, Sydney Motorsport Park