Garth Tander claims pole position for carsales TCR Asia Pacific Cup  

Garth Tander has taken pole position for the carsales TCR Asia Pacific Cup at Albert Park this afternoon.

Driving his brand-new Audi RS 3 LMS, the three-times Bathurst 1000 winner was dominant in the session, taking the top spot by over 0.5s from TCR debutant Michael Caruso in his Valvoline Alfa Romeo.

Tander appeared well down the order in both of the practice sessions, but with two minutes to go in the qualifying session, Tander blasted the new Audi to the top of the times and will start tomorrow morning's race from the top spot.

Caruso was impressive in his first day as a TCR driver, claiming second place ahead of Hyundai driver Nathan Morcom.

Practice form man Will Brown will start tomorrow's race in fourth place, ahead of James Moffat (Renault) and a pair of Peugeots in Aaron Cameron and Frenchman Julien Birche.

Rounding out the top 10 is James Allen (Alfa Romeo), Dutchman Stan van Oord (Audi) and Dylan O'Keefe (Renault).

Race 1 for the TCR Asia Pacific Cup, supporting the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, will be held at 9:40am tomorrow morning.

“We are really, really happy with that one,” said Tander.

“We didn’t really know where we were at after practice, because with the way the tyre regulations are this weekend, you can run brand-new tyres in practice, but we chose not to.

“It’s a brand new car, so we effectively shook it down in Practice 1, bedding brakes and things like that. We made it better in Practice 2, and it came alive on greens in qualifying.

“I thought we’d been behind because they ran green tyres this morning, so they’d have a better idea of the balance of the carl, but the MPC boys did an awesome, mega job.

“It was a late deal putting all this together. I’d spent some time on the MPC computer sim, learning TCR cars around this track, and it all came together.

“I can’t thank, Steve McLaughlin, Jamac Racing and carsales coming on board for this year, it’s a fantastic result.”

2020 TCR Australia Series calendar

TCR Asia Pacific Cup: Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, 12-15 March
Round 1: Sydney Motorsport Park, 27-29 March
Round 2: Bathurst 6 Hour, 10-12 April
Round 3: Winton, 1-3 May
Round 4: The Bend Motorsport Park, 12-14 June
Round 5: Morgan Park Raceway, 3-5 July
Round 6: Phillip Island, 21-23 August
Round 7: Sandown, 11-13 September
TCR Bathurst 500: Mount Panorama, Bathurst, 13-15 November