It may not have gone down to the wire like many other series that were on display during the 2019 Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships, however Will Brown’s carsales TCR Australia Series victory was just as memorable.
Brown will forever hold the honour of being the first ever TCR Australia Series winner, and the 21-year-old revealed his thought process throughout the series’ inaugural year.
Will, it must have been a pretty special feeling being the first ever winner of the carsales TCR Australia Series?
It was awesome. It was the first year of the series, so to be the winner of that is awesome. I didn’t even plan on doing the series until I got the call from Barry Morcom at HMO Customer Racing not long before it began.
It was still pretty unknown at the moment. I didn’t know if the Hyundai was a good car, if the team was good, or even if I would drive it right. But then to go out there and win a lot of races was really exciting, and something really great to be a part of.
Did you get a chance to celebrate all?
We won the series at Sandown after picking up enough points and we celebrated there. Then I got to enjoy the win again at the end of year presentation in Adelaide which was really nice.
Leading into that Sandown round, were you confident of securing the title?
I wasn’t getting too ahead of myself throughout the series. I never really do because I know, along with everyone else, that anything can happen in motorsport.
At Sandown I knew I was in with a chance of winning it there, so we really focused on banking points instead of winning races.
Was there a particular moment for you that you savoured?
I had a fair few good ones actually, but two stick out. Probably the visit to Sydney Motorsport Park because it was the first official meeting we had. I went there hoping we could get a top five finish, but to win two races out of the three was awesome. Winton was also great as we were able to secure the longest lead for the series.
I must say though, the racing in general was so exciting. Everyone put on a great show and it was tough racing. That is what I liked most I have to admit.
Sounds like it was an unforgettable year. Were there any negatives to it?
There was. I would have to say it was Ipswich because of what happened. I believe I had the pace and was confident we could put it up to Frenchman JK Vernay. We even qualified so close to him. However, I got caught up in a first lap incident which was a major setback. Ipswich is a motor track, so it was very hard to come back through the field to fight for the win.
Anyone you would like to thank?
Barry Morcom who owns HMO. I have had a lot to do with Nathan and Barry over the past two years, even racing with Nathan in Super2. I would really like to thank Barry for giving me the opportunity and all the guys at HMO.
What about plans for the year?
We are definitely looking at doing the TCR Series again, especially with HMO Racing. It’s something we’re working on now. Hopefully we will have some exciting news soon. I will also be doing the Supercars endurance rounds again, the Dunlop Super2 Series and maybe some main game Supercars wildcards entries.
