French brothers Jimmy and Teddy Clairet will join the grid for the final two TCR Australia rounds later this year, whilst Ben Bargwanna has confirmed he will take part in the TCR World Tour event on the streets of Macau.
Jimmy, 32, and Teddy, 29, will share a Peugeot 308 TCR for the events at Syndey Motorsport Park (SMP) and Bathurst, with the round in which each will race to be confirmed at a later date.
The duo will be team-mates to Bargwanna for the races, with Teddy’s appearance marking a return to the series.
Teddy last raced in the 2022 season finale at Bathurst, where he scored an eighth and seventh place finish in the two races respectively.
For Jimmy, whichever event he contests will be his début in the series, and mark a return to racing since he entered the final rounds of last year’s TCR Italy series.
“For sure, we are really happy to be able to come back in Australia and join again the fantastic atmosphere over there,” said Teddy Clairet.
“We met the Bargwanna’s last year, and we had a good relation from the scratch.
“Then we had really good times in Portimão and Spa together, we are sharing same philosophy of racing, so when the opportunity of coming for the two Australian TCR World Tour rounds appeared, it was impossible to not take it.
“With Jimmy, we don’t know yet who will compete at SMP and in Bathurst but the global experience will be awesome for us and we are looking for it!
“Then we will go to Macau with Ben so it’s an incredible journey for all of us I would say!
“In the end, we are really happy to see again this part of the world and we can’t thank enough the GRM crew, the Bargwanna’s and Hangcha of the course for the opportunity… Let’s race!”
Bargwanna has also confirmed an additional TCR World Tour outing. The 22-year-old already took part in the events at Portimão and Spa-Francorchamps earlier this year as part of TCR Europe, and he will now also make his début on the Circuito da Guia street circuit in November.
Bargwanna will race the Hangcha Forklifts car which has otherwise been campaigned by Clay Richards and soon the Clairet brothers.
“We’ve forged a great relationship with the Clairet brothers over the journey and they’ve become great friends,” said Bargwanna.
“It’s great to have both of them coming down for the two World Tour rounds – I think at the moment they’re playing rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to race at Sydney and who gets Bathurst.
“It’s great for the team to have them in the Hangcha car in a field that is getting more and more competitive by the day.
“And then I get to go and do Macau, which is pretty incredible.
“It’s one of the most famous races so to have the chance to go and compete there is something we had to grab when Hangcha, who are a Chinese company, came on board. I’ll jump from the Burson car to the Hangcha car and go and have a crack.
“It’s one of those iconic races that is on the bucket list of loads of drivers so it’s very cool to know I’m going to go there and race in the final round of the 2023 TCR World Tour.
“The end of my year will be Sydney, Bathurst, Macau and Adelaide in the S5000. It’s a pretty incredible way to finish the year, for sure!”