THE Audi in which ‘The Enforcer’ became a TCR Australia frontrunner will be raced by Michael Clemente at this weekend’s Bathurst International.
Clemente has committed to a late-season switch from Honda to Audi with a view to assessing his 2023 options.
To do so, the privateer has leased the RS3 LMS TCR – currently as a one-off – which Ingall drove to four top three finishes in the inaugural 2019 season.
Clemente tested the car at The Bend Motorsport Park last month.
“The chassis is 005 which was their prototype kind of press conference car, it was what they used to do all of the releasing in the early days of TCR when they released their program,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“It has been around the world quite literally and come to Australia, Ingall raced it and Luke King raced it last year. But it’s actually one of their very first cars which is pretty cool.”
Elaborating on the motive behind the switch, Clemente explained: “We joined the series in 2020 and the Honda was a good fit for us back then.
“We were just jumping into the series and we obviously hadn’t had much experience so we were just looking to learn the ropes for a little while and see where we ended up.
“Now we have kind of got a handle on things and we’re just looking to see new pathways, like just trying a different car.
“The Audi is a one-off for now, we’re just looking around to pretty much better our results overall.
“We’re just trying to see what the different cars are like and if it suits my driving style or not and what the benefits and weaknesses are of the two cars really.”
He has further linked with Melbourne Performance Centre for a technical alliance at Bathurst, allowing him to compare data with the likes of 2019 champion Will Brown.
Clemente will continue to don Ryco colours at the November 11-13 event.
“We have partnered with Ryco again for the Bathurst round. Really excited to do that as they’re heavily involved in motorsport and we love being the ones to show them TCR,” he said.
“They have actually come out with a new performance product called Ryco SynTec, so that’s what the livery is based off.”
