Rickard Rydell’s 1998 pole lap is a famous moment on Mount Panorama. Image: Polestar
David Wall is excited to see how the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series mimics the Super Tourers days on Mount Panorama this weekend.
The Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour is the first time that TCR Australia has been racing Enduro for Super Tourers on the famous racetrack 22.5 years after the last 1000 km.
Wall has fond memories of those days including Rickard Rydell’s stunning 2:14.9265 pole lap in a Volvo S40 in 1998.
The head of the team of the same name that operates Honda Civics at TCR Australia also believes the modern front-wheel drive guns might even give Rydell’s markers a nudge.
“I think these cars will be fantastic there,” Wall told Speedcafe.com.
“Obviously there is the lap record [held by] Rickard Rydell I think in a 9/14 … I mean, when I was a kid I would look at these cars and think about how great those two liter cars were.
“I think they will be very similar in time to the current TCR cars that are out there.
“We have never been there in the TCR car but we feel we have a decent car to start there and of course we will know more after Practice 1.”
All the Civics wanted to pace at Symmons Plains on Round 1 of TCR Australia, but were real top 5 cars the last time at Phillip Island where Tony D’Alberto finished second in Race 3 of the # 50 Honda Wall Racing.
While still affected by the balance of power settings, they benefited from the counterweights added to other Phillip Island cars, as well as some improvements from Wall Racing.
Mount Panorama is a racetrack with a lot of flat-out running like Symmons Plains. Wall anticipates the team will have problems in a particular sector, namely the “really big, uphill” but hopes to make up for that over the top.
“Is sector 1 [control line to Reid Park] will our strongest sector be in Bathurst? I don’t think so, ”he admitted.
“But Sector 2, if we do our part right, we will hopefully make up our deficit in Sector 1.
“Sector 3 [dominated by Conrod Straight]I don’t think we will be that bad if it goes downhill, but I suppose it is unknown.
“We’re not 100 percent sure how they would all compare to the other brands, and I don’t think it’s anyone else. As soon as we get started, we’ll all know where they all actually are.
“But given the unique venue, there will certainly be some differences.
“You have Garth [Tander] Coming for the weekend without an effective balance weight; You have Jordan Cox [Round 1 winner]which is obviously pretty fast anyway but has a very good Phillip Island balance weight.
“Well, I think there will be some differences from Philip Island anyway, but time will tell.”
Tony D’Alberto. Image: Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series
While it will be D’Alberto and John Martin in the Wall Racing Civics, David Wall himself will be behind the wheel of the AWS Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia.
He will share a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with Adrian Deitz, who drove a Ferrari 488 on lap 1 at Phillip Island, which sparked a technical drama.
“Tony would do that [GTWC round], but has chosen to focus on his TCR and, effectively, I am filling it in, ”explained Wall.
“As for the Ferrari side, they didn’t have a very easy event at Phillip Island, and given the time frame for the Bathurst turnaround, this was the easiest and most logical way to get Adrian into the event.
“When I got the call to say, ‘Hey, would you mind filling this out? ‘You don’t really have to think about it that much.
“We had to move a few things on the TCR side to make sure everything was covered, but I’m absolutely looking forward to it. it looks like there is a star field.
“I haven’t driven the Australian GT at Sydney Motorsport Park since 2011. So if I get back to the series and share a nice car with Adrian, it will of course be great.”
The opening practice for Supercheap Auto TCR Australia and GT World Challenge will take place this morning.
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