Another international driver has confirmed their place for the carsales TCR Australia Series’ fourth round at Queensland Raceway, while there have been changes to Kelly Racing’s driver line up for this weekend.
Jean-Karl Vernay will race for Melbourne Performance Centre in the Audi RS 3 LMS, with titles from a number of a categories from across the globe under his belt.
The 31-year-old boasts an impressive record with titles in the 2010 Indy Lights and the 2012 French Carrera Cup Championship before switching to the TCR International Series where he drove the Audi RS 3 to the title in 2017, as well as claiming top honours in the 2018 TCR BeNeLux.
Behind the wheel of the same Audi Garth Tander drove in Phillip Island and the Bend, the Frenchman is excite to race down under at Queensland Raceway.
“I’m really looking forward to coming to Australia and racing in the new TCR Series down under,” Vernay said.
“I’ve seen some of the racing and the amount of cars that they have and it looks very competitive. For a TCR series that has only just started, it is a very good series so far.
“I have raced lots of Audi TCR cars around the world, so it should be no problem for me to get accustomed to the car.
“The circuit looks interesting – only six corners, but the guys at MPC have said that it is quite technical too, so I’m really excited to get to Australia and experience the racing.”
“We have made a few changes to our TCR program for QR, and we feel that this will put us in a stronger position for the rest of the 2019 season,” Kelly Racing’s Todd Kelly said.
“We are absolutely committed to the Subaru TCR program. As we’ve seen, the cars have really great speed, but there are some aspects that we have discovered that we need to work on.
“I’ve been acting as Chelsea’s engineer, and she has the ability to be further towards the front, but while we continue to unlock the potential of the Astra, we felt it would be best to get the input of Andre’s experience.
“While it has been an up and down start, we are quite confident that a really strong result for our TCR cars is just around the corner. The racing is really close and as we’ve seen, anything can happen.”
The carsales TCR Australia series holds its fourth round of the 2019 season as part of the Shannons Nationals visit to Queensland Raceway on 2 – 4 August.
Tickets to the event are available for purchase online or at the gate.
Can’t get to the track? Watch the free live stream at speedseries.com.au and carsales TCR Australia live on SBS this weekend.
