Current NZ F1600 Champion Jordan Michels of Invercargill has been signed by Wall Racing of Australia to drive its third Honda Civic Type R at Round 4 of the carsales TCR Australia Series at Queensland Raceway in Ipswich this weekend.
“It’s very exciting. It’s all a bit last minute, but I’m genuinely looking forward to the weekend,” said Michels. “The amount of hype around the category has been unreal, so to have an opportunity to be on the grid is just amazing.
“I’ve done a couple of races in a Hyundai TCR in New Zealand, so I have a few miles in a TCR car, but they were different circumstances, completely different tyre, so this weekend will still be a steep learning curve.
“The opportunity to be a part of Wall Racing in this category is awesome, so I want to soak it all up, enjoy the experience and see how we go.”
Michels will join the other two Honda Civics of Tony D’Alberto and recent race winner John Martin for the TCR category’s debut at the Ipswich venue.
“At this stage, it’s just a one-off, but we are keen to see how Jordan goes in our car and the series,” said David Wall from Wall Racing Honda. “He has been racing a TCR car in New Zealand and has been doing well in the endurance series over there. We met Jordan at the launch of TCR New Zealand. He had a long discussion with (Wall Racing team manager) David Fyfe and we all felt that he’d be a good addition for our team.”
Round 4 of the carsales TCR Australia Series at Queensland Raceway kicks off with two practice sessions on Friday, followed by qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday and two 30 minutes races on Sunday.
TCR cars are an exciting worldwide formula conceived in 2014 and there are now series around the world. A New Zealand Series is due to start in January. The cars are front wheel drive hatchbacks or sedans powered by production based turbocharged petrol or diesel engines up to 2 litres.