Milldun Motorsport has secured the services of veteran driver Barton Mawer and former gaming sensation Matt Simmons for the final round of the carsales TCR Australia Series.
Both drivers will be making their TCR Australia debuts behind the wheel of the team’s Subaru WRX TCR cars when the series heads to The Bend Motorsport Park as part of the Shannons Nationals.
Simmons, who started his motor sport career in the unorthodox way of progressing through the gaming ranks, spent two full seasons driving a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT in the Blancpain GT Endurance Series.
Following his two-year stint in real life racing, Simmons went back to competing in Esports where he travelled all around the world, including Australia, Japan and the United States.
Now, making his grand return to real life racing, Miller is excited to race in one of Australia's newest national category.
“It’s exciting to get my first chance to race in the TCR Australia Series, and a great chance to get back into the driver’s seat,” Simmons said.
“TCR has proved to be really exciting, diverse class of racing. There are some extremely good drivers and teams in the field, and it is already regarded as one of the fiercest competitions n Australia.
“I definitely need to pay a big thank you to Milldun Motorsport for the opportunity in the Subaru. The team was great at the test, we all learnt a lot and I feel that they have really turned a corner in these cars.
“It’s also my first chance to race on Australian soil. This is something that I’ve always wanted to do and it’s great that I’ll get to tick this box.”
As for Mawer, he enters the series having raced the past 20 years in a variety of different categories, including open wheelers, sports cars and prototype machines.
His most recent drives came at the World Time Attack in Sydney and at Sandown Raceway in September as part of the historic debut of S5000 where he finished the weekend in seventh place.
“Racing in TCR is certainly going to be different to what I’m used to, but I really can’t wait,” Mawer said.
“We had a shakedown at Winton, which was good to get a feel for the car, which I have to say is a lot different to the Porsche RP 968 that I last drove at the World Time Attack.
“I actually have an affinity with the Subaru brand. I won the inaugural 10-hour event at Sydney Motorsport Park some years ago, so I’ve always been fond of Subaru and the WRXs.
“Milldun Motorsport has worked hard on the two TCR Subarus, so the plan is to go to the Bend, get a reliable, strong result and show that the cars deserve to be in the series.”
The round will be Milldun Motorsport’s first time running the former Kelly Racing Subarus with Simmons, Mawer and 2018 CAMS Australian Rally Champion Eli Evans part of the tests conducted by the team to resolve some of the cars’ reliability issues.
Fans unable to attend the round can catch the live stream on thenationals.com.au. TCR Australia will once again be screened on SBS on Saturday and Sunday.
The final round of the Shannons Nationals will take place at The Bend Motorsport Park on 15-17 November.