BATHURST driver Brad Shiels is remaining upbeat following a rollercoaster weekend of racing in the fourth round of the TCR Australia series at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Shiels finished the round with results of 18th, 13th and 10th in his Hyundai i30N but he had finished the opening race in 11th place before he was hit with a 10-second penalty.
It put a dampener on what was otherwise an encouraging weekend of racing for the team which has left them sitting 10th in the championship race.
Shiels didn't see eye-to-eye with officials on the call that dropped him down the grid.
"I'd qualified in 11th, which was okay for us because we'd been given 40 kilos of success ballast after the Bathurst round, so that hurt us a bit," he said.
"In the first race I was given a 10-second penalty for contact with another car which we didn't agree with because the car ran into the back of me and he spun out himself. That was a bit annoying so that put us back to 18th on the grid for race two.
"I got up to 13th and then up to 10th, so we were back around where we had qualified at the start of the weekend so that was good.
"Ideally we would have been a bit further up the grid but finishing the last race inside the top 10 isn't too bad."
Shiels had finished inside the top eight across all three of his races in the previous round at Mount Panorama.
Those result landed him a weight penalty for the SMP round, but he'll now be relieved of it for his next attempt.
"The weight does make a fair difference. You don't have to drive the car any differently, it just affects the car's overall performance," he said.
"It doesn't brake or corner as well and it's not as fast in a straight line. The good thing is we didn't qualify well enough at this round so we'll get the weight taken out for the next round.
"The car was fast but not as fast as we would have liked. The other two Hyundais were up the front but they were carrying less weight than me, so that contributed a bit to it."
One of the other two Hyundai i30N drivers on the grid, Josh Buchan, claimed victory in races one and two before Michael Caruso took his Alfa Romeo Giulietta to the top in race three.
Three rounds of the series remain with the next event taking place at Queensland's Morgan Park Raceway from June 25 to 27.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News