International champion for local TCR round

International driver Jean-Karl Vernay, will join Leanne Tander and Russell Ingall in an Audi RS 3 LMS this weekend at Queensland Raceway for the fourth round of the TCR Australia series.

Melbourne Performance Centre has confirmed that the 31-year-old French star will driver the car previously driven to the brand’s maiden Australian victory by Garth Tander, bringing his wealth of experience to the local competition.

Vernay’s racing CV is impressive to say the least, including success in French Carrera Cup, class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and most recently, international TCR competition behind the wheel of the Audi RS 3 LMS.

In 2017 he won the TCR International Series and in 2018 won the TCR BeNeLux title, making him one of the most accomplished drivers taking part in this weekend’s competition and certainly the most versed in the TCR category.

“I’m really looking forward to coming to Australia and racing in the new TCR series Down Under,” Vernay said.

Although the French star won’t arrive in Australia until tomorrow (Thursday), and be able to see the Queensland Raceway circuit first hand, he’s excited by his research and what’s he’s learned about the circuit so far, and is confident he’ll get the hang on if very quickly.

Certainly, where the race car is concerned, there are few with as many laps and hours behind the wheel of an Audi RS 3 LMS and even fewer who have enjoyed such success in the class on the international stage.

“I have raced lots of Audi TCR cars around the world, so it should be no problem for me to get accustomed to the car. The circuit looks interesting – only six corners, but the guys from MPC have said that it is quite technical too, so I’m really excited to get to Australia and experience the racing.”

Vernay will be joined in another Audi by Leanne Tander who will be contesting her third TCR Australia round for Audi and MPC having started in the RS 3 LMS at Phillip Island and The Bend and continues to get faster and grow in confidence in the TCR formula.

“Hopefully it’s third time lucky for me, because I feel that we’ve been close but my qualifying results have been sub-optimal,” Tander said.

“Getting another chance to drive the Audi is really valuable. I’ve only been on round-by-round  deals at the moment, which is okay as I want to get more seat time in preparation for, hopefully, a full-timed deal for next year.”

Rounding out the third Audi in the assault is Russell Ingall, the veteran Aussie racer obviously getting a taste for the front-wheel drive race car in the last round in South Australia.

“It’s fantastic to be back again,” Ingall enthused. “I really enjoyed my first TCR outing at The Bend. Unfortunately, the event was over just as I was getting into it, so having a second stab at a track that I know really well is going to be awesome.”

The action gets underway on Friday with two practice sessions (12pm and 3:13pm) with qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday and two 30 minute races on Sunday. The racing is free and live in HD on SBS or fans can live stream all of the action at TCRAustralia.com