Will Brown was delighted with his first weekend in TCR Australia series in Sydney, where the HMO Hyundai driver left with two victories and the championship lead after ‘closer than expected’ racing.
Brown beat the Alfa Romeo of Dylan o’Keeffe in both races two and three on Sunday to claim the championship lead leaving the first-ever meeting of the new series.
In both races the 20-year-old had to work hard for the win, passing O’Keeffe in the latter phase of race two before repeating the feat in race three.
Brown admitted that the racing in the new series was closer than he had anticipated, with all three races featuring close battles in the field.
“I had a ball out there today,” said Brown. “The racing was so close; I really didn’t expect it to be so close this weekend.
“I thought it would be a bit more spread out. Everyone drove so well and so clean.”
Brown praised Subaru racer Andre Heimgartner for his drive in race three, which saw the Kelly Racing driver get up to second briefly before a steering issue forced him to retire.
“Race two was awesome with so many passes and then in race three the real MVP goes to Andre Heimgartner, he made a lot of really good passes and I just loved every second of the racing.
“I can’t wait to get to Phillip Island. I think we’ve got an awesome package.”
Brown was keen to point out that he didn’t feel his double win was due to having a superior car compared to his competitors.
“I don’t think the Hyundai was better than the Alfa or anything like that, but Dylan’s car just gripped up towards the end of the race. You could see it where he was understeering out of corners but we could get the rear to loosen up and that’s where we could make the move for the win.
“Everyone was a little bit cautious but the racing was really tough [and] the whole experience this weekend was great.”