HE was quicker that Chaz Mostert on day one, he pulled off a nice passing move on James Moffat on day two and on day three he cemented a top-10 round finish.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Brad Shiels' debut in the TCR Australia series was one which highlighted the talent of the Bathurst driver as he more than held his own in a talent packed grid.
While Shiels was signed by Tilton Racing last season, COVID-19 meant he missed the pre-season test day in mid-January and had to wait until this week to make his debut in series at Tasmania's Symmons Plains.
It was a debut which both Shiels and his team were more than pleased with.
He'd never previously driven at the circuit, but by the end of the second practice session Shiels had clocked the fourth fastest time in his #333 Hyundai i30N.
Shiels' best lap time was quicker than what former Bathurst 1000 winner Mostert was able to manage, while his name also sat above drivers such as Michael Caurso, Tony D'Alberto and Jason Bargwanna.
"On the practice day we went into it not really knowing where we were going to end up and at the end of the day, we were fourth which we were really, really happy with," Shiels said.
"We were actually a little bit surprised with how competitive we were."
He went on to qualify in eighth ahead of the round's three races.
In race one Shiels began well and was in sixth, but a small error at turn three saw him lose that position. He dropped to ninth but with two laps to go, he managed to pass Moffat's Renault to end up in eighth.
The following day in race two, Shiels dropped two spots on lap two but was back up to eighth after nine laps and sat seventh by lap 15.
That's where he crossed the line.
Though a mechanical issue hampered Shiels' third race, he still did enough to finish eighth overall for the round.
"We knew going into that weekend the car wasn't best suited to that track because it's got a lot of straights on it and our car is not particularly strong in straight line speed, it's better suited to tracks with more corners," Shiels said.
"In race three I got up to sixth off the start, which was awesome, and then the mechanical problem came and the car went into limp mode and I had to come into the pits.
"I had to start it back up again before I could go out and we lost two laps and ended up finishing in 15th. At least I finished and got some points."
When asked if he and Tilton exceeded their expectations, Shiels said "I think so".
He also said there is improvement to come.
"We qualified in front of the factory Hyundai teams which was really good. We were really happy with where we were considering we are all pretty new to the car," he said.
"We know we've got a few more things to improve, so we should only get faster which will be awesome.
"It's good racing against all the guys with big names. Hopefully we can improve it a little bit more and we'll be right up there."
