Randle ready for ‘most important round of my career’

Randle entered the Gold Coast Elimination Final in eighth and below the cut.

However, by the close of the weekend, Randle had usurped Anton De Pasquale to make the Team 18 driver the first of those eliminated – ahead of Ryan Wood and Brodie Kostecki.

Once again, Randle finds himself below the elimination line – behind Will Brown and Kai Allen – and fighting to stay in championship contention.

An elevation of aggression on the Gold Coast is expected to continue at Sandown, where jeopardy is just as high with walls in close proximity to the track and short run-off areas aplenty.

“You can’t underestimate the top six,” Randle told Speedcafe.

“The competition is just insane this year. Everyone’s really stepped it up. I guess you get that every year, but you have to just be clean and consistent.

“You’ve got to be at maximum aggression because where I’m sitting I’ve got nothing to lose. I can’t go back from here. I can only go forward.

“In a way, the pressure’s kind of off me, but in another way, I really just want to make that final four.

“Everyone’s going to be putting their best foot forward, so we just have to just go that little bit extra.”

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With a nothing-to-lose attitude, Randle reckons the drivers who will have to fight their way into the top four will drive differently.

That, said Randle, will translate into more risk-taking.

“Normally, at this point in the year, you’re trying to just get good results and bank points,” said Randle.

“I can’t go any further back. If I don’t finish after the rest of the year, I’m seventh. After this round, if I don’t get through I’m just fighting for fifth, six and seventh.

“This is my chance to get in that final four. I’m 30 points off fourth and there are 300 points up for grabs. So you probably have to risk a pass.

“I reckon there’ll be cases where people will risk something at the chance of getting a penalty to get that spot if they know that if they don’t do the pass, they’re not in.

“We’ll risk something to have that spot and then worry about whether we get a penalty or not later. So it’s going to be a tough job for Bairdo (Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird) this weekend.

“I think it’s trying to find the balance of being aggressive, but also not. I think that’s going to be tough this weekend.”

The demise of Ryan Wood and Brodie Kostecki at the Gold Coast offered something of a lesson for the finalists.

Randle said drivers can’t ease their way through to Adelaide, and that top five finishes “aren’t enough” for the likes of him, Allen and Brown on the outside looking in.

“We’re not in the four and at the moment, so we’ve probably got that little bit of luxury… not that I want to wish misfortune on anyone, but we just have to capitalise on anything and we have to be there to capitalise on that,” said Randle.

“So that’s where we need to have a strong Friday. Obviously, it’s the same format in terms of qualifying tyres as Gold Coast, so that’s going to be challenging, but we’re up for the challenge.

“It’s probably the most important round of my career and it’s probably one of the most important rounds for Tickfords as well.”

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Tickford Racing is one of three teams with two drivers remaining in the Finals Series.

The others are Triple Eight with Broc Feeney and Will Brown as well as Grove Racing with Matt Payne and Kai Allen.

For Randle, there’s a balancing act with his teammate Cam Waters, who comes to Sandown on the bubble in fourth.

“There are definitely pros and cons to having both cars in. The cons being the risk of a double-stack,” said Randle.

“Like Chaz and Woody… if Woody is in front of Chaz and there is a safety car, I’d assume they’d just keep Woody out and cop losing all those positions.

“But the pros are that obviously we both want to work hard to make sure we can have quick cars, qualify up the front.

“It really just depends how Saturday goes, what happens for Sunday.

“I’m sure it’s going to be interesting whether there’s going to be some interesting calls made over the radio, not sure yet, but I want to get through. That’s that’s my goal.”

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