Wall Racing and reigning TCR Australia champion Tony D’Alberto will début the new Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR later this season ahead of the events at Bathurst and Sydney Motorsport Park.
D’Alberto has thus far continued to race the FK7 variant of the car that he has campaigned since joining the series in 2019.
With JAS Motorsport having introduced the new version of the car this year, D’Alberto will become the first driver to race the updated car later this year.
Whilst the car is not yet in Australia, and its exact arrival date is to be confirmed, the team are planning to have D’Alberto out in the chassis for the final two events of the season in November, at Bathurst and Sydney Motorsport Park, when the TCR World Tour visits the country.
D’Alberto’s team-mate Brad Harris will continue to race the previous generation FK7 Civic.
“It’s great for Wall Racing, Honda and myself to have a brand-new Civic Type R enter the series,” said D’Alberto.
“From Honda Australia’s point of view it makes a lot more sense to be racing the car that is based on the FL5 road car. You don’t get many opportunities to race new cars in your career so it will be really special to debut this car later in the year.
“We have been in regular conversations with Néstor [Girolami] and JAS Motorsport, and from all reports, the new Civic is just a little nicer in all areas, so I really can’t wait to get my hands on it.
“And it is perfect timing too – right ahead of the TCR World Tour for the final two rounds at Sydney and Bathurst.”
David Wall, Team owner of Wall Racing, added that with the delivery of the new car, his team is also looking to expand back up to running three cars in the future.
“Having the new Honda Civic Type R TCR is a very exciting proposition for our team,” said Wall.
“Wall Racing was one of the first teams to commit to TCR Australia, and now we are in the next phase, bringing a new car in, which is great news for all parties.
“We are in regular contact with JAS Motorsport, and they are giving a lot of information about the cars. We are also in touch with Néstor, and he is really enthusiastic about the performance of the cars, as well as its comfortability.
“It’s great for our team that we can upgrade to the current spec car at the start of the model’s lifecycle and we are looking forward to having it for the tail end of the season.
“The plan for our team is to return to three Honda TCR entries. For us, it’s the perfect number and we hope to make another announcement on this in the near future.”