Evans is 22nd in the drivers’ championship in what is his first Supercars season full-time with Brad Jones Racing.
It’s hardly an accurate representation of the New Zealander’s ability, especially given he has matched and beaten the likes of Chaz Mostert and Will Brown in Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS.
The Porsche champion is a known quantity in GT3 racing but said the Dunlop tyre is unlike anything he’s experienced.
“I always knew that it was going to be a learning year, but I probably didn’t give as much credit to how much I needed to learn about this Dunlop tyre,” he explained.
“It’s not a direct comparison, but when you compare guys like Woody [Ryan Wood] and Matt Payne who have come from a little bit of Super2, they have a bit more of an understanding of the Dunlop tyre, even the phasing and qualifying.
“Everyone’s pretty solid when it comes to just rolling out the gate and the first push lap is the fastest lap of the session type thing, but a lot of that comes down to the tyre phasing as well.
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“We’re a little bit spoiled when it comes to GT stuff because you don’t have to get it right on your second and third lap, you can get it right on lap six and seven. So that side of things has been a pretty steep learning curves in terms of just trusting the tyre as well.
“You go from testing and practice where your tyre is pretty average to a tyre that in the end does offer a lot of grip but just very small windows.
“Just trying to maximize that is not easy and then it’s the same when it comes to racing. You lean on it a little bit too hard early on and you pay the price later on.”
Before Supercars, Evans was accustomed to Pirelli and Michelin rubber.
Changes are afoot for a new Dunlop tyre compound that is more forgiving and has a wider operating window. It could be introduced next year with testing well underway. That would bring the tyre more in line with what’s used globally.
“You hear people in Australia say, ‘Oh, if only we put a Pirelli on the thing it would be a bit different’,” Evans explained.
“It is a very forgiving tyre. You can almost drive it past its limit for a couple of laps but then cool it off and go back to looking after it and it will come back to you before the end of the stint.
“They’ve got a really nice recipe there where fuel and tyres match generally. So across the stint lap time-wise, you don’t really deg that much.
“It’s because the tyre hangs on and the way that the fuel comes out, whereas in a Supercar it’s very, very rare for you to only drop a couple of tenths in lap time from opening laps, full tank, new tyres to low fuel, pretty worn out tyre.
“That’s just because the tyre doesn’t quite have the same life.”
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