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Lachlan Mineeff welcomes return to scene of stunning debut
For the first time in his Supercheap Auto TCR Australia career, Lachlan Mineeff will return to a circuit he has previously competed at in the category as he prepares to revisit the track where he burst on to the scene 12 months ago.
The Purple Sector Racing privateer made his debut at the Phillip Island circuit in 2021, the weather conditions that weekend acting as a leveller of sorts, which enabled Mineeff to impress. Mineeff finished ninth in his first-ever race, before going on to finish 12th and 13th in Races 2 and 3.
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The opening round of the 2022 season was hampered somewhat by the weekend format with added weight given to qualifying which determined the starting positions for both Races 1 and 2.
Mineeff finished 17th in Race 1 before being reset to the back for the second, but the Equipment Dynamics Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR suffered a mechanical failure. In the final race, Mineeff charged up the order again to finish in 12th.
For the Phillip Island round this weekend, the format has been changed to allow drivers more opportunity to recover from less-than-ideal qualifying performances.
“The new format for this weekend really benefits us, I’ve always raced better than I qualify in every category I’ve been in so being able to work myself forward across the three races will be fun,” said Mineeff.
“It’s almost 12 months exactly since I made my debut, I still look back on my first weekend fondly thanks to the results I had. Everything came together very last-minute and it was extremely frantic yet we managed to put together what is still one of our best weekends in the category so far.
“Since then we’ve been to a lot of new tracks for me in TCR machinery so going back to a venue I’ve raced in before with this car is exciting. We’ll have a good baseline setup to build off, but what I wanted from the car 12 months ago and what I want now is actually very different. So we’ll be able to take what we had and then improve upon it even more.
“Out of all the tracks I’d say Phillip Island is most suited to the Golf which gives me great confidence so I’m really looking forward to this weekend.”
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia field will contest three 16-lap races at Phillip Island this weekend forming the opening event for the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships together with the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS and Turtle Wax Trans Am Series.
Tickets for the event are on sale now and must be pre-purchased. CLICK HERE to secure your place at Phillip Island.
Live and on-demand coverage will be broadcast via Stan Sport, with a bumper 12 hours of coverage over Saturday and Sunday, starting at 11am AEDT each day. Viewers outside of Australia can watch free on motorsport.tv.