Australia's newest categories hit the track
Monday 19 November, 2018
CR Australia and S5000 have begun life in Australia with a successful official launch in front of plenty of industry stakeholders at Sydney Motorsport Park.
TCR Australia kicked off proceedings with the current confirmed vehicles hitting the track, Supercars co-drivers James Moffat and Tony D’Alberto part of the four-car field, before a category media conference set up another test session with a host of esteemed drivers taking part, including 2018 CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Champion Jayden Ojeda.
Aussie Racing Cars’ pilot Charlotte Poynting was also part of the action, the young driver thrilled to get in a few laps behind the wheel of the Wall Racing Honda Civic.
“The car is amazing and it’s such a cool piece of equipment,” Poynting said.
“I would definitely love to get into TCR at one point because it’s a series and it’s a great way to progress onto the world stage compared to other categories Australia.”
Following the TCR Australia morning test sessions, all attention turned to the highly-anticipated S5000 reveal with Supercars great John Bowe and CAMS CEO Eugene Arocca amongst the crowd.
Armed with a sleek chassis and a formidable roar, the S5000 instantly became the crowd as spectators were left in awe of the sheer power and volume as it paraded down the circuit’s iconic straight.
For the rest of the afternoon, potential buyers put the S5000 and TCR cars to the ultimate test, getting a feel for what 2019’s newest categories have to offer
Australian Racing Group Director Matt Braid was confident the successful launch will spark a huge amount of interest and more entries.
“S5000 has finally launched and everyone is really pleased,” Braid said.
“There was a cast of thousands here today including a lot of interested parties, partners and supporters with this project and we’re really happy to finally get this project underway and actually show the car.
“It’s been a really great day, everything has gone according to plan, it’s been really speculator and really good to see the cars on the track for the first time.
“There are a lot of very important people here today and lots of fans of open-wheel racing, both past present, who have left very interested in this and no doubt some entries will come very quickly.”
Both categories have formally announced their 2019 calendars, TCR Australia confirming earlier this month their seven-round season will take place at every round of the Shannons Nationals.
Meanwhile, the S5000 Championship will feature in six of the seven rounds of the Shannons Nationals.