TCR Australia title contender Dylan O’Keeffe is aiming to impress some high-profile international guests when he returns to the driver’s seat of his Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo Guilietta for Round 3 of the series at The Bend Motorsport Park this weekend.
The event will be attended be key personnel from Romeo Ferraris, the Italian organisation responsible for the creation of the Alfa TCR car, and O’Keeffe is hoping for a return to the form that saw him scoring a pair of race victories in the previous round at Phillip Island.
“The team at Romeo Ferraris have developed a very competitive TCR package – the Alfas have had some wins and podiums in the WTCR this season, and we’ve been able to deliver some success for them here in Australia as well,” O’Keeffe said.
“It’s very exciting to have some guests from Romeo Ferraris at The Bend – they’ve come all the way out here from Italy to learn about our program, and about the series. Hopefully we can do them proud by continuing our race-winning form from Phillip Island.”
The ASM Alfa left Phillip Island with damage due to a crash in the final race of the weekend, and O’Keeffe has paid credit to his team for repairing it.
“Everyone at ASM has worked tirelessly to get the car back on the track, and they’ve done a stellar job,” he said.
“I think The Bend will be a good track for the Alfa; at Phillip Island, we were very strong through the fast turns, and The Bend also has a lot of high-speed corners.
“It’s not an easy track to learn, because a lot of the corners have blind approaches, which makes it hard to judge braking and turn-in points. Fortunately, I raced there last year in Carrera Cup, so at least I know which way it goes.
“Even with the DNF in the last Phillip Island race, we’re still in a very strong championship position; hopefully we can score some more good results and close the margin to the leader this weekend,” O’Keeffe concluded.
TCR Round 3 schedule
Central Australian Time
Friday, 12 July
12:20pm – Practice 1 (30 min)
3:30pm – Practice 2 (30 min)
Saturday, 13 July
10:35am – Qualifying (30 min)
1:45pm – Race 1 (30 min)
Sunday, 14 July
12:45pm – Race 2 (30 min)
1:45pm – Race 3 (30 min)
Where to Watch
Races 1, 2 and 3 will be shown live on SBS. All sessions will be live streamed on the Shannons Nationals website and Facebook page.
