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Both Chaz Mostert and Will Davison offered up some exciting thoughts about the racing that we’ll see this weekend following their first taste of the Taupo circuit on Friday.
The patchwork surface, much of which looks to chew through tyres, has the two veterans thinking back to the Wanneroo circuit in Perth before its latest re-surfacing.
Should the degradation be as extreme as expected there could be some wild racing with Mostert predicting there will be “chaos” – in a good way.
“The surface takes me back to the old school Perth, maybe even a little bit worse, because it gives you a little bit of hope around here in a couple of patches,” said Mostert.
“You go, ‘oh that feels good and gripped up’, and then all of a sudden you get to the next corner and you blaze past the apex.
“But 90 minutes [of practice], I don’t think [anybody] had any tyres left at the end of that session.
“This weekend is going to be super interesting. It will be a spectacle watching for a fan.
“Watching cars flying around from the start of the stint to the end of the stint, it’s going to be chaos. And chaos is entertainment, and we’re in the entertainment business. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Davison added that there will be a lot of “unhappy, whinging” drivers on radios as the stints wear on.
“I have memories [from Perth] over the years, in the Project Blueprint days, with big variation in the cars,” he said.
“I remember years ago, [Mark Winterbottom] and I were lapped at Perth and Queensland Raceway, and then we’ve had races where you’re winning and lapping everyone else, which is huge variation in performance and tyre deg.
“We’re going to see that [at Taupo]. Will we see the same variation that we used to? I don’t think, but everyone is going to be in a fair bit of strife in the stints.
“If you can minimise that hurt, you’re going to be having fun. There’s going to be a lot of very unhappy, whinging drivers in the stints, I’d say. But it’s going to be cool.”
That experience of the old days at Wanneroo could be crucial for the older drivers in the field this weekend, says Mostert, given some of the fresher faces haven’t experience super high degradation before.
He joked that after Taupo the young drivers may have more respect for the veterans.
“I’m pretty keen to see the young pups that have come in to Supercars in the last year or two because they missed old school Perth,” he said.
“A couple of us older whippersnappers have been around… and you’ve got to hang on to these things. Later in those stints, these cars become almost borderline undriveable.
“So I’m looking forward to seeing the youth and the talent that’s come through hopefully getting their eyes opened up a little bit and have a bit more respect for guys like me and Will Davo.”
One curveball regarding degradation for today may be the weather with predictions of rain.
