Craig Lowndes hopes that the Supercheap Auto wildcard’s latest test day has produced gains for the full-time Triple Eight Race Engineering entries ahead of the Sydney Supercars event.
Lowndes and Zane Goddard hit Queensland Raceway today for their second test in the #888 Chevrolet Camaro, which Triple Eight will field in both the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
Goddard had already raced the car in last month’s Darwin event but the Red Bull Ampol Racing entries of Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen have been in action since at the NTI Townsville 500.
Lowndes hopes that he and Goddard have found something which will benefit Feeney and van Gisbergen next time out at Sydney Motorsport Park.
“It’s been great to get more laps in, and keep building on the miles in these cars,” he said.
“I am still enjoying the car, I think these cars suit my style and it reminds me of the VT [Commodore] days [mid-1998 to 2000].
“Today we worked through a program of suspension changes, just to get more data information. It’s been a really positive day off the back of what we have learnt.
“We started on a baseline of where the Red Bull Ampol Racing cars have been and where they are at the moment.
“We’ve then been able to progress it further throughout the day so hopefully, that is also good for them going into the next round.
“For Zane and I, we’ve got really comparable lap times so I’m really looking forward to driving with him.
“He’s doing a fantastic job and it’s been a super positive day.”
Goddard remarked, “It has been a super productive day for the team; we’ve tried out a lot of different things with the car.
“Some of them felt really good, which is awesome.
“It can be difficult to tell how it will translate to different tracks but overall, it feels like we have learnt a lot of good things.
“It was great to get Craig in for some more laps this time around. It’s always cool to get to work with him. We seem to be on the same page when it comes to the set-up of the car which is great.
“We’ve had a fair few people out from the team today, so it has been great to just be learning off everyone.
“We’ve still got some more testing to complete in the lead-up to Sandown, the more we can learn the better it will be come race weekend to put myself, Craig, and the Supercheap Auto Wildcard in a good position and hopefully everyone gets to reap the rewards.”
Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing was also present at Queensland Raceway for parity testing work.
Its garage was closed on and off during the day as it sought to run through its programme as discretely as possible, although it is understood that its learnings will be shared with other Ford teams before they undertake their own private testing at Winton next week.
It is understood that DJR’s work included both aerodynamics and engines, with suggestions that the Mustang’s powerplant could be in for a new throttle body in a bid to address rear tyre wear.
The jury is out on the aerodynamic package which was introduced at the NTI Townsville 500, although Sydney Motorsport Park is likely to give a far more meaningful read on the tweaks.
The Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight takes place from July 28-30.
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