Will Brown is set to switch from left-foot to right-foot braking in order to bring himself into line with Eggleston Motorsport team-mate Paul Dumbrell.
Brown tried the technique in a race car for the first time during a test at Winton yesterday and believes that matching Dumbrell’s style will yield a performance gain given the similar set-ups their VF Commodores run in the Dunlop Super2 Series.
“We’re just right-foot braking from here on in and I’m trying to convert over to pretty much what most of the field does,” Brown told Speedcafe.com.
“That’s what PD does and we’re setting the cars up the same so we want sort of similar driving styles, so hopefully that helps.
“I’ve actually been working on it at the Erebus simulator a little bit, but (Tuesday’s test was) the first day I transitioned it into the car and it was a good day.
“All the right-foot braking seemed to go fine; we were happy with it, definitely.”
The 20-year-old is now a month away from his Pirtek Enduro Cup debut as co-driver to Erebus Motorsport’s Anton De Pasquale.
While Tekno Autosports encouraged its Virgin Australia Supercars Championship rookie Jack Le Brocq to make the same shift which Brown is now making, the Eggleston driver says that the change was motivated more by his Super2 campaign than the enduro role.
“Erebus have mentioned it but it’s always been on the cards with Eggleston, it’s always been something that we’ve wanted to look at doing,” he confirmed.
“It’s just been the time to do it; we’ve got eight weeks off now, we’ve got test days up our sleeve and I’ve got one with Erebus (coming up) as well so it’s just really the point now where we’ve decided to do it.”
The change has nevertheless left the Queenslander more confident heading into next month’s Rabble.Club Sandown 500.
“Obviously the enduros are going to be a big step up, and I’m looking forward to driving with Anton,” said Brown.
“After (the test), I’m quite confident with the right-foot braking and I don’t think there’s a problem there, so it’s not really going to change anything.
“It’s just going to make it more similar, I guess, to what Anton’s doing, so the car transitions the same way and our feedback’s the same.”
Brown is currently eighth in the standings in his second season in Super2, 401 points off the pace of leader Dumbrell.
He says that the focus now is a strong back half of the season to prove he can mix it with the front-runners and potentially pull off race wins after a gearbox problem cruelly denied him a first in Newcastle last year.
“I feel more comfortable in the car and we just haven’t put it together this year,” explained Brown.
“To tell you the truth, hopefully we just get a bit of a reset with the right foot braking, reset the year, and head into the enduros and the last half of Super2.
“Obviously the top three are a long way ahead, but we’re still aiming to be in the top three, not in the championship but in race meets, and hopefully win a race.
“I think right foot braking will just reset everything and, we’ll just get on with our year and do what we can do.”
Brown was due to log a small number of laps as part of Super2 team-mate Dom Storey’s rookie test day at Winton today before a pre-enduro test with Erebus in early September.
The Sandown 500, for which Round 5 of Super2 is a support category, takes place from September 14-16.
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