THEY say good things come to those who wait, but for Bathurst driver Brad Shiels August can't come soon enough.
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That is when he will take the biggest step in an already impressive career as he joins the likes of former Bathurst 1000 winners Garth Tander and Jason Bargwanna on the grid in the TCR Series.
It is a series which races across the globe, the cost-effective touring car format having attracted both rising stars and drivers who have already proven themselves in the Supercars series.
Naturally it is prospect which excites Shiels, even if the coronavirus pandemic has forced him to wait for his chance.
He will drive a Hyundai i30 N for Tilton Racing.
"I've known the guy who owns the team for a few years, but it still came a little bit out of the blue at the start of this year," he said.
"He just called me up and told me his plans and wanted me to be a part of it, so it all happened pretty quick.
"I was a bit disappointed when I had everything ready to go and two weeks out from the first round it was all good and I had an awesome opportunity and then it [coronavirus] came out of nowhere and shut us down."
Prior to the shutdown, Shiels did get a taste of what the Hyundai - the same model car Will Brown used to win last year's championship - was capable of.
So when the Australian Racing Group, who run the category in Australia, released a revised calendar it was good news for Shiels.
It features six rounds, the first of which will be at Sydney Motorsport Park on August 15-16.
"I can't wait to be part of it. I drove the car at Eastern Creek on the very last test day before they shut it down - so I've driven the car once and they're pretty fun to drive," he said.
"It should be awesome and I've actually moved to Canberra in the last two weeks to be closer to the team I'm driving with. So I'm pretty much a part of the race team full-time now."
Should the TCR Series unfold as the ARG hopes, Shiels will also get to race on his home track at Mount Panorama.
The TCR category is one of the headline acts for the Bathurst International, which will run from November 12-15.
Though the initial plans to run a 500 kilometre, non-championship endurance race which featured international TCR teams has had to be altered, Shiels is still excited to show what he can do in the sprint race format.
It will mark the first time the category has raced at Mount Panorama, but it is a circuit Shiels is familiar with.
The Bathurst driver holds the Radical Australia Cup lap record for Mount Panorama, he has contested the Bathurst 6 Hour and in 2018 he claimed the chequered flag in the one-hour Production Sports Car race.
"It was supposed to be an enduro and obviously that's changed to sprint races, but I still get to go there, I can't wait for that, it's going to be awesome," he said.
"It will be cool because those cars have never been there before, so everyone will be fairly even. It should be really good."
Phillip Island, Sandown, Symmons Plains and Baskerville rounds also feature on the TCR calendar. Shiels hopes that he will be able to test again next month.