Roland Dane admits that maintaining unity between both sides of his Red Bull Racing Australia garage will be a key challenge at Sydney’s season finale.
Red Bull drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will enter the event just 20 points apart after the former edged into the lead at Phillip Island.
Although the duo have finished one-two in the standings for the last two seasons, this year marks the closest they have been heading to Sydney.
Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison are also in contention, although will need misfortune to befall their rivals to take the crown.
“The issues we face are trying to keep everyone’s ambitions and expectations in check and make sure that they’re working for the team as a whole whilst also hopefully being allowed to race and get on with competing against each other,” Dane explained in a team preview.
The team owner, who was forced to step into the team principal role mid-year due to the sudden exit of Adrian Burgess, stressed that there will be no team orders for the pair once on track.
“The only instruction is going to be to do our absolute best to make sure that one of us wins and not the opposition,” he said.
“As I’ve always said, there are no ‘team orders’ here and we’ll just let it play out on the day as long as we stay ahead of those trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
In addition to strengthening its position in the battle for the drivers’ title, Phillip Island saw Triple Eight all but seal a fourth consecutive teams’ championship crown.
The team enters Sydney 342 points ahead of Pepsi Max Crew FPR with 576 remaining in Sydney.
Whincup and Lowndes have both hailed their team’s ability to continue its class leading form in the first year of a new set of technical regulations, but Dane insists that this year’s title will be no more satisfying than the others.
“No, this year isn’t more significant than others because we should always be in it,” he said.
“Triple Eight should always be in the championship fight. We have been every year since 2005 – it’s our job.
“Anyway, the championship isn’t done until it’s done. I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t win the teams’ championship and it’s extremely satisfying to me and everyone else at Triple Eight and it’s very important to us, because of exactly what it is – it’s a teams’ championship.
“It includes every single member of the organisation so if we win it again every single person here knows they were a part of that victory.”
