Each of the manufacturers has won at least once at Phillip Island, apart from the Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Lynk & Co which made its debut at there last season.
With form on the board at Phillip Island, Dylan O’Keeffe be out to put Lynk & Co into the winners’ circle and will do it with a new black livery. The ASM team started the 2024 TCR season in the same colours it ran in 2023 with Oliphant.
But with two rounds completed and a race win under O’Keeffe’s belt, the team has decided to update the scheme to show that the squad means business. O’Keeffe won Race 2 at Symmons Plains last month and led from start to finish. After finishing third in Race 3, his results catapulted him to sixth, 26 points of the points leader.
A new name for this round is Jude Bargwanna who will join the series in an ex-GRM Alfa Romeo Giulietta. He makes his series debut, off the back of taking out the V8 Touring Car Series last year.
Provisionally, Tufflift Racing’s Zac Soutar (Audi RS3) leads the standings by a point over Ben Bargwanna and Jordan Cox in their GRM Peugeot 308s after the opening two rounds. At the Sandown opener, Bargwanna dominated to net his first round victory.
The results are to still be finalised from Symmons Plains’ Round 2 by the verdict of a Motorsport Australia hearing. At the moment it stands with HMO Customer Racing’s Tom Oliphant as the winner.
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The third round at Phillip Island will be the first for TCR Australia on the resurfaced track, which is expected to see lap times go under the existing record of 1:37.0827. It was set by Will Brown in 2019 while the fastest qualifying lap was a 1:35.6708 set by Chaz Mostert in 2021.
This year will be the fifth visit to Phillip Island for the series. There have been four different polesitters in O’Keeffe, Mostert, Jay Hanson and Josh Buchan. There have been eight different race winners, in O’Keeffe, Buchan, Mostert and Fabian Coulthard all with two each.
While it is an open book among the 14 drivers, the TCR Challenge will be on between Glenn Nirwan and the twin Harris brothers duo of Brad and Will in their Wall Racing Hondas.
The first or two 20min sessions on Friday is at 11:25am AEST. The two-part qualifying commences at 11:25am on Saturday, before the opening race 3:15pm. Race 1 will be live on 7mate in all markets except Sydney, with 7plus also showing the action live Australia-wide. Sunday’s two races will be live on 7plus, at 1:25pm and 4:10pm.
Phillip Island Entry List – Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series
| # | Sponsor | Driver | Car |
| 1 | HMO Customer Racing | Josh Buchan | Hyundai i30N Hatch |
| 2 | Honda Wall Racing | Tony D’Alberto | Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR |
| 4 | Carl Cox Motorsport Team MPC | Clay Richards | Cupra Leon Competición |
| 11 | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Dylan O’Keeffe | Lynk & Co 03 TCR |
| 15 | HMO Customer Racing | Tom Oliphant | Hyundai i30N Hatch |
| 18 | Team Valvoline GRM | Aaron Cameron | Peugeot 308 TCR |
| 29 | Tufflift Racing | Glenn Nirwan | Audi RS3 TCR |
| 33 | Schaeffler GRM | Jordan Cox | Peugeot 308 TCR |
| 71 | Hangcha Racing | Ben Bargwanna | Peugeot 308 TCR |
| 74 | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Brad Harris | Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR |
| 76 | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Will Harris | Honda Civic FK7 TCR |
| 79 | Team Valvoline GRM | Ryan Casha | Peugeot 308 TCR |
| 110 | Tufflift Racing | Zac Soutar | Audi RS3 LMS TCR |
| 179 | Jude Bargwanna Motorsport | Jude Bargwanna | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR |
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