Will Brown will miss next weekend’s third TCR Australia event of the season at Winton, with the Melbourne Performance Centre driver facing a date clash with a fact-finding visit to a NASCAR event in the USA.
2019 champion Brown has had a troubled start to the 2023 season, with mechanical dramas ruling him out of all three races in the first event at Symmons Plains, before further issues blighted his last weekend at Phillip Island.
Despite those issues and missing the next round, Brown has committed to contesting the remainder of the season thereafter, starting at Queensland Raceway from 11 – 13 August.
When the field is racing at Winton, Brown will instead be in the United States, where he and his Erebus Motorsport Supercars team will attend the NASCAR race in St Louis on a ‘fact-finding mission’.
MPC has not revealed if the 24-year-old’s car will be campaigned by anyone else in his absence.
“I am excited to head to America to expand my racing knowledge and gain insights into the teams and drivers, and how they prepare and run for race weekends,” said Brown.
“It is disappointing to miss the Winton round of TCR, and I will be back for the remaining four rounds of the season to gain as many points as possible to boost my World TCR ranking.”
Belinda Narbey, Head of Partnerships at Brown’s sponsor Liqui Moly, supported his decision to skip the next event.
“We went into this partnership with Will, knowing any Supercars commitments would come before TCR,” said Narbey.
“We got through last season without any clashes, but these things happen when you have someone as talented as Will on your team.
“Troy [Russell] and the Melbourne Performance Centre team are working hard to get the car right after the issues that have plagued us for the first two rounds of the year.”
Russell, the head of MPC, lamented the issues the team has faced in the opening events of 2023.
“The car Will is driving, previously driven by Jay Hanson in 2022, gave us no issues throughout the year despite some running repairs needed,” explained Russell.
“This year has not been the start myself or the team had hoped for but we are all working hard to get the car and Will back to the top of the field.”
Audi will be represented by Zac Soutar in his second-generation RS3 at Winton, whilst Lachlan Mineeff, the returning Iain McDougall and newcomer Clay Richards campaign the first-generation RS3.