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Matt Stone Racing and Jayden Ojeda enjoyed a productive test day although whether the latter drives in the Repco Bathurst 1000 is set to be decided after a full debrief.
The Dunlop Super2 Series front-runner joined the squad at Queensland Raceway on Monday so that MSR could evaluate him for a potential co-drive in the Great Race.
Kurt Kostecki, who also cut laps in Ipswich, is tipped to join brother Jake in one of the Yatala-based team’s entries, meaning Ojeda would be in the frame to share Car #35 with Zane Goddard.
The Sydneysider, who was able to test given he remained in Queensland after July’s Townsville rounds due to the Harbour City’s lockdown, will have a debrief with MSR in coming days.
“We’re going to have a debrief later this week and see how that all goes,” Ojeda told Speedcafe.com when asked what indication he had been given about the Bathurst 1000 berth.
“I think for the most part it was a pretty strong day, pretty happy with my own performance, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Team owner Matt Stone told Speedcafe.com, “Like all the guys out of Super2, they wouldn’t be at that level and they wouldn’t feature at our days if they weren’t competent.
“By all accounts, I think our engineers and Zane and all of our drivers collectively were happy with everyone’s performance. Obviously, we had Jayden there and Kurt Kostecki turning some laps, and I think both of them did a good job.
“It’s all just information that we take in to our engineering group when we’re making these decisions,” added Stone.
“Obviously just geographically speaking, Jayden was in a good position, he was in town, and we were able to do that, and obviously with the Super2 season being a little bit disrupted, it’s made it harder for us to give those Super2 drivers a fair assessment.
“Getting a few extra laps in our car with our engineers certainly helps us to get more information to make these decisions.”
Ojeda made his Repco Supercars Championship debut in Garry Rogers Motorsport’s wildcard entry in last year’s Bathurst 1000, while his regular ride is an MW Motorsport Nissan Altima in Super2.
While MSR fields ZB Commodores as GRM did last October, a Triple Eight Race Engineering-built car, and soft compound tyres, made for a new experience for the 22-year-old.
“There was a bit of adjusting to the Triple Eight ZB,” he recounted.
“It was my first time in one of the Triple Eight cars so it took a little bit to get my head around that.
“It’s just a different driving style, I guess, to what I’m used to driving in the Nissan and other Supercars I’ve driven, which was cool.
“Obviously, it’s good to expand your skillset and just try new things, a bunch of new styles to make the car work, to add that to your arsenal.
“I had a run on the softs, which was my first time running on a soft tyre, which was cool. The cars really feel like they come to life when you chuck a soft tyre onto them in comparison to the hard.”
Ojeda is currently third in the Super2 Series, which has been on hiatus since the two rounds in North Queensland.
Supercars is expected to reveal a new calendar in coming days, at which point the Bathurst 1000’s postponement to the now vacant Boost Gold Coast 500 date at the start of December should be confirmed.
