Words by TCR Australia – 25th March 2021
Duvashen Padayachee is looking forward to his maiden event for HMO Customer Racing at Mount Panorama for Round 3 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series.
Padayachee, 30, will drive the Hyundai i30 N TCR that Nathan Morcom raced in 2019 – the first time that car has raced since Morcom won the final race of thee 2019 season at The Bend Motorsport Park.
His debut TCR race will be run under the #130, alongside the team’s other two cars for Morcom (#11) and Josh Buchan (#30).
The TCR round will be the debut for the turbo-charged touring cars at Mount Panorama, supporting the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.
The race is a one-off for Padayachee at the moment, but after enjoying a recent test day at Wakefield Park, he says that he is looking forward to his touring car debut.
“I had an evaluation day at Wakefield Park which was quite nice. I really enjoyed the car,” he said.
“It’s a proper race car, and that enticed me to do the first round. It’s just a one-off at the moment, but I’ll see how it all plays out.
“Bathurst is awesome. I love the track, It’s the best track here in Australia. These cars will suit the track, the racing will be really good as well.”
Padayachee has spent the past few seasons competing in Porsche Carrera Cup competition, but ever keen for a new challenge, he selected TCR as his next step because of its diverse, competitive nature.
“I have never looked at Supercars or Super2 as a category that I can compete in due to work commitments, so the reason why I wanted to do TCR is that it’s one of the most competitive and professional class that Australia has outside of Supercars/Super2,” he said.
“You always want to race against the best. There’s current Supercars drivers in there, Supercars co-drivers and young up-and-comers. It’s got a great mix of driving talent and professional teams, so that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be involved.
“You can go door-to-door, overtaking is easier than other classes, and the BOP (balance of performance) ensures that it is close between the brands. I think that will make the racing even better, particularly at a circuit like Bathurst.”
The look of Padayachee’s car will be revealed shortly, and is set to match the of HMO Customer Racing’s increasing stable of cars.
And thanks to the family’s connections to Hyundai, the choice of car and team made sense.
“Our family business is the largest Hyundai forklift dealer in Australia, so we work with Hyundai and Hyundai Material Handling a lot,” he said.
“Having a Hyundai TCR car, with a great organisation like HMO, means that everything is aligned and makes sense.
“Nathan and the HMO team do an awesome job. The cars are presented well, and being the champion team from 2019 with Will (Brown), you know that their cars are going to be capable of running at the front end. For me, there’s no better team to align with at the first round and hopefully a few more.”
Team manager Scott Fulcher says that he has been impressed with Padayachee’s initial introduction into the team and feels that he will be competitive from the outset.
“He did very well in testing. At Wakefield Park, Nathan set him a base line time, and they were very close in times through the day,” said Fulcher.
“He has experience in other categories and is certainly no slouch. He should certainly do well, despite his lack of front wheel drive miles.”