HMO Customer Racing’s Bailey Sweeny and Josh Buchan are looking to match it with the world’s best touring car drivers at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend in the first of two back-to-back rounds of the TCR World Tour in Australia.
The Hyundai teammates head into the penultimate round of the TCR Australia Championship at the top of the driver’s standings having dominated the early stages of the season with seven race victories from the previous 15 starts.
However, the team will face a host of additional challenges at Sydney Motorsport Park with 10 international drivers joining the field, including reigning champion Mikel Azcona and current TCR World Tour championship leader, Norbert Michelisz, both driving the latest-generation Hyundai Elantra N TCRs for the title-winning BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse.
The 25-car field – the largest grid ever for a TCR Australia Championship event – will compete over a condensed two-day program that culminates with two of the three races run under lights.
Sydney Motorsport Park has been a happy hunting ground for HMO Customer Racing, particularly for Buchan who scored his first TCR victory at the 3.93km circuit in 2021 and dominated the most recent round held there last year with pole position and two race wins.
HMO Customer Racing will have two 30-minute practice sessions at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday afternoon to fine tune the cars ahead of qualifying in the evening and the opening race, which starts at 8:40pm. The team will return on Saturday afternoon for the two remaining 17-lap sprints, with the top-10 finishers from Friday’s race reversed for the second race.
Fans can catch all the action from Sydney Motorsport and the Motorsport Australia Shannons Speed Series live and on-demand via Stan Sport and the Nine Network.
What the drivers said:
Car 30: i30 Sedan N TCR – Josh Buchan
“There’s been a lot of excitement building up to the TCR World Tour rounds in Australia, and it’s going to be really interesting to see how competitive we are against the best touring car drivers in the world. But, really, it’s just another race weekend for us with a whole bunch of new drivers that we don’t know their names.
“I just want to put on a good performance for myself, and the guys on the team – they’re the ones I’m racing for – and hopefully jag some great results against the internationals. Sydney Motorsport Park has been a happy hunting ground for me in the past, and I’m confident we’ll be fast again this weekend. But I’m not going to be driving any faster just because they are here, and I’m certainly not going to drive any slower. We’ve got a better idea of the car the more rounds we do, and if it’s fast enough at Sydney then we will be right up there.
“It would be amazing to perform well against those guys: win or lose. The Australian standard is ridiculously high, and I think we can race hard against them.”
Car 130: i30 N TCR – Bailey Sweeny
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we compare to the international competition this weekend. I don’t think we’ll have as much advantage at Sydney Motorsport Park as we will the following weekend at Bathurst, as the track is very similar to European circuits in its character. Plus, they’ve got an extra practice session to get up to speed. It will be gloves off that’s for sure.
“Racing under lights will introduce a pretty cool dynamic, and an extra challenge for us all to chase the car to suit the changing conditions. It will be the same for everyone.
“From my perspective, the priority is to protect our lead in the championship heading into the final round at Bathurst where I’m confident we will have a strong result. So, it’s important to have a clean weekend at Sydney and not get tangled up in any incidents and score good points in every race.”
2023 TCR Australia Championship Standings – after Rd 5, Sandown Raceway.
| Position | Name | Car | Points |
| 1. | Bailey Sweeny | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 589 |
| 2. | Josh Buchan | Hyundai i30 Sedan N TCR | 559 |
| 3 | Aaron Cameron | Peugeot 308 TCR | 551 |
| 4. | Tony D’Alberto | Honda Civic Type R | 506 |
| 5. | Jordan Cox | Peugeot 308 TCR | 496 |
| 6. | Ben Bargwanna | Peugeot 308 R | 486 |
| 7. | Lachlan Minneef | Audi RS3 LMS | 465 |
| 8. | Michael Clemente | Cupra Leon TCR | 434 |
| 9. | Kody Garland | Peugeot 308 TCR | 389 |
| 10. | Tom Oliphant | Lynk&Co 3 TCR | 356 |