Kody Garland to drive for Garry Rogers Motorsport Team

The first of seven rounds will be held at Symmons Plans in Tasmania, with the last on November 12 and 13. Further racing will be held in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Garland described the series as a 'stepping stone to the Supercars.'

"Lee Holdsworth and Chas Mostert ran in the category last year. Will Brown won in 2019. They're all current Supercar drivers,'' Garland explained.

Garland earned a start for the team through what he said was a fairly unique route after he was approached by the team.

"In the first week of this year they held what is called a combined, where six up-and-coming drivers get the opportunity to experience driving their cars.

"This was also a chance to gauge ourselves against their best drivers. So I applied for that at the end of last year and I was approved.

"It was driven by (former Supercar champion) Marcus Ambrose. It was a great to learn from him.''

Dylan O'Keeffe and James Moffat were the TCR drivers and provided what Garland said were 'benchmark lap times'.

"I'd never driven in the TCR before but I did the same times as those boys. So that was quite promising from the get-go,'' he added.

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From there negotiations between Garland and team management intensified. Garland last year drove in the Aussie Cars Series and he was leading when it was aborted due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

"Barry Rogers, Garry's son, came up to me on the last day of the combiners and told me they were impressed with the way I drove. He said to drive with GRM is a lot more than just doing a fast lap time, they look at how drivers conduct themselves, what they do for work and all that sort of stuff,'' he said.

The initial plan was for Garland to test with the team throughout this year then drive in the 2023 series.

"Barry rang me again after I'd come home and told me he's spoken with his dad and said his dad didn't want to wait until 2023. He said he wanted me in TCR this year

"That was pretty cool to hear it from those guys.''

While he admits this year will be a learning curve, Garland is determined he won't just be making up the numbers.

"Judging on lap times we should definitely be a contender,'' he said.

"We had a test day last week at Winton and the lap times were certainly on point with the other drivers. I think we have potential to turn some heads this year.

"I'm hopeful for a top five or top 10 (finish)."

Driving Supercars has been Garland's dream since he started racing go karts as a young boy with the Manning Valley club. He concedes gaining a start in the TCR series is a major leap forward, but it's still not a fait accompli that he'll automatically progress to Supercars

"It just such an unknown. I guess you have to be in the right place at the right time and know the right people,'' he reasoned.

Garland will be under no pressure to relocate to Melbourne.

"The best part about the team is that they really appreciate that you make a living for yourself during the week. They're happy for me to stay here,'' he said.

(Garland runs the workshop at Advanced Automotive in Taree.)

Garland added that he did what he described as 'work experience' with GRM at tracks in Sydney and Bathurst last year when the Aussie Cars were in recess.

"I think that showed them that I really wanted to go racing for them,'' he said.

"That's what every driver does there. You just can't jump straight into the car, you have to swing spanners a bit.''

Garland, who will be among the younger drivers in the series, admits this development has been unexpected.

"It's pretty special that I've been approached by the team,'' he smiled.

It's going to be a big year. Now he can't wait to get behind the wheel for the opening round.

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