“If you don’t win, you’re never satisfied.” That’s the assessment of WestCoast Racing Team Principal, Greger Petersson, following a solid TCR International Series debut in Malaysia, although the Swede has relatively modest expectations for the championship’s second instalment at the ultra-modern Shanghai International Circuit (SIC) in China (11-12 April).
The Halmstad outfit became the first Swedish team in three decades to compete at a Formula 1 World Championship event a fortnight ago in Malaysia and did itself proud as it made its bow on the global stage, having already conquered the Scandinavian motorsport scene.
WestCoast Racing not only provided American ‘tin-top’ racer, Kevin Gleason, with the tools to take pole position for the first ever TCR International Series race, but Gianni Morbidelli emerged from tense on-track tussles to land a hard-earned podium finish at the Sepang circuit.
Such results are just reward for the team’s monumental effort to ready its trio of Honda Civic TCRs for action in only a matter of weeks and, while there’s a keen desire to continue sampling the delights of victory, WestCoast Racing is reluctant to underestimate the challenges it will face when the TCR International Series resumes at the state-of-the-art SIC in China this weekend (11-12 April).
Two races covering 10 laps of the 5.45km Shanghai racetrack will be held as part of the illustrious F1 Chinese Grand Prix support package and WestCoast Racing Team Principal, Greger Petersson, said: “If you don’t win, you’re never satisfied. There’s no doubt we made fantastic progress, both in pre-season testing at Barcelona and at the opening round in Malaysia, but I think it will be difficult to repeat the sort of success we had at Sepang, simply because the Shanghai International Circuit is a very different track and the temperatures will be much lower too.
“We’re still in the early stages of development and we’re working extremely hard with the new Honda Civic TCR, going up against some cars that were developed more than a year ago. We don’t really expect to be able to beat the SEATs this time out, but that is definitely our long-term aim. We have to target that. There is a good group of guys behind the team and sooner or later, their efforts will yield results. It’s hard to pinpoint where the strengths and weaknesses lie at the moment, but the contrasting challenges of Shanghai will give us more of an insight.”
Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2015 TCR International Series at the Shanghai International Circuit will be streamed live on the official www.tcr-series.com website.
Coverage of the first race will begin at 13.20 local time (7.20 CET) on Saturday 11 April, while race two will be streamed from 10.25 local time (4.25 CET) on Sunday 12 April.
For more information on WestCoast Racing, please visit the officialwww.westcoastracing.se website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page and follow@WestCoast Racing on Twitter.