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The Carrera Cup race winner has moved into the ex-DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang which Zak Best very nearly took to the title in 2023, with two days of testing at Winton this week being his first taste of Super2-spec machinery.
A Cup Car is rear-engined but not entirely a foreign experience, even if the Supercar takes a lot more to rotate in a corner.
“They’re similar in the way that you need to get the weight onto the nose,” Vidau explained to Speedcafe.
“They’re dissimilar by the way of how long you actually have to trail brake these cars and how badly they turn without any brake or throttle.
“So, they’re a bit of a different thing compared to anything I think anyone will ever drive; these have their own personal characteristic to them.
“Brendan taught me everything I need to know. Basically, we spent the morning just doing five-lap runs, just understanding everything. It didn’t matter about the lap time; just understanding what the throttle does, what the brake does, and everything.”
‘Brendan’ is Brendan Hogan, the former Tickford Racing engineer who worked with Best last year at Anderson.
Vidau commented, “He’s a straightforward kind of guy. He loves a joke here and there but he’s straight onto everything and there’s no messing around when we’re doing what we need to do.
“But, when we’re out of the car, and we’re chatting shit, it’s a good time.”
For Vidau, there was an extra challenge to coming to terms with a Gen2-spec S550 Mustang; specifically, accommodating his physical size in the seat.
“It was physically demanding,” recalled the South Australian.
“We had a bit of trouble with the seat, just not quite fitting in the car yet, so we’ll get that all sorted for Bathurst.
“[I] couldn’t quite do the long runs that we were planning on doing, but that was fine.
“We ended up doing a 25-lap run at the end, which was nice and warm, and the exhaust on my arse with no seat padding was pretty warm.
“But it was good, a good couple of days, I learned a lot and the boys at Anderson Motorsport just know what they’re doing.
“They gave me a good car and explained everything about how to drive and what to do, and we went through a whole bunch of changes.”
Round 1 of the Dunlop Super2 Series takes place at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 on February 23-25.
