Walkinshaw and Brad Jones Racing debuted the new platform at the season-opening Dunlop Sydney 500 with plenty keen to see how the two teams performed.
Champion Chaz Mostert and his teammate Ryan Wood looked like they were in trouble when the weekend began in earnest on Friday.
While Mostert cracked the top 10 in Friday’s sole 40-minute practice – albeit half a second off the pace – Wood was dead last with an ill-handling car and with a second and a half to find.
In the hours after practice, Mostert qualified 20th for the first 100km race that night while Wood was just a few places up the road in 15th.
Mostert drove forward to 15th in Race 1 while Wood went backwards and finished 21st.
Wood qualified fourth for Race 2 on Saturday and finished a respectable seventh as Mostert fought through from 22nd to an 11th place finish.
However, Walkinshaw were delivered what Stewart called a “kick in the guts” when the #1 Mobil1 Optus Supra was disqualified for not having its wheels fitted with tyre pressure sensors.
Their lacklustre qualifying continued on Sunday, but a manic Race 3 headlined by attrition and a sudden rain burst bore fourth and fifth place finishes for Mostert and Wood.
Asked if he was happy with the weekend, Stewart thought long and hard before affirming a positive outlook.
“You have to be a little happy from this,” he told Speedcafe.
“But equally, you know down the track that there’s just more hard work, more learning, more growth — and that’s pretty cool as well.
“This would be boring if it was always the same. The beauty of Supercars is you never can ever get comfortable with yourself, because it has a way of giving you a blood nose just when you don’t expect it.”
The trials of Sydney Motorsport Park were in stark contrast from the jubilant scenes on the streets of Adelaide just a few months ago when Mostert won his first Supercars title.
It’s been a relatively short runway to the start of the season, complicated by the complexity of the 2UR-GSE that is less off-the-shelf like its LS and Coyote rivals and more bespoke.
Add to that, wind tunnel testing meant a short window between partner team Brad Jones Racing getting its body panels and being on track for the first shakedown in early February.
“Getting to the line was super hard and it took a mountain of effort from all of the team, but particularly our technical people and our mechanics,” Stewart explained.
“A lot of time away from home, a lot of missed anniversaries, birthdays, Christmases, and sacrificing weekends. That’s time they’ll never get back, and that’s also their families as well, so, when you think of it in that vein – what a sacrifice.”
Stewart conceded seeing Wood in last at the end of Friday’s practice was a bitter pill to swallow, especially in the context of his recent success and championship-winning potential.
“Friday was hard. You’re fighting at the back end, and you know you’re developing a car, and you know this is a long-term project, and you have all of those premises in your head, but it’s still bloody hard to be in 21st,” said Stewart.
“We won the championship, and so there’s a lot of pride and expectation, even though we’ve tried to manage that internally. We realise the journey we’re on because we’ve got such a mountain of work ahead of us.”
Nevertheless, the team’s CEO is optimistic that the upward trajectory will continue.
That’s evident in the context of the Supra quintet, which began the weekend with one car in the top 10 in Race 1 and Race 2 before all five made it into the top 10 in Race 3.
“We know there are gonna be bumps in the road,” said Stewart.
“It was a really nice shot in the arm for everyone in the team and just a little spring in the step to go: there’s work to do, but there’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel – especially when you get the five GR Supras in the top 10.
“The collaboration with the BJR guys and girls gets a little closer because we all can see there are green sheets.
“Toyota has been amazing in regard to their long-term vision on this and ensuring that we look at it in a perspective of ‘Are we learning and constantly improving?’ and without really any expectation of huge success this year, but just growth and momentum.
“That’s really cool because they get a little bit of a shot in the arm, too. Now we’ve gotta manage that a little bit because there won’t always be days like this.
“You’re riding a bit of a tidal wave and you’re having the highs and lows, but if I was watching TV, this is a nice way to end the show.”
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