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That’s the word from PremiAir Racing, which was able to practice full racing pitstops with the new restrictor during its pre-Bathurst 1000 test at Queensland Raceway on Monday.
PremiAir was the only team not to undertake a traditional pre-endurance test ahead of the Sandown 500, instead saving it for the lead-up to the Great Race.
The team scored its maiden podium finish at Sandown with James Golding and David Russell and is eyeing more silverware at Bathurst.
“The day was split into different parts with some of it about quantifying things we wanted to learn on the car,” explained team manager Stephen Robertson of the test.
“The rest was spent on our Bathurst enduro preparation, including plenty of pitstop practice with multiple different strategies, fuel dumps with the new restrictors, brake pad changes with discs and lots of driver changes as we looked to both improve on some things we learnt at Sandown while preparing ourselves for the big one.”
The refuelling restrictor change has been made after a larger fuel hose was adopted to significantly speed up pitstop times ahead of the Sandown 500.
It’s hoped the latest change will remove inconsistency in refuelling times experienced between cars at Sandown.
PremiAir race engineer Andrew Gilliam does not expect the change to have a big influence on how the Great Race plays out.
“We had the 49mm restrictor at Sandown but to equalise the field a bit the category has introduced a 46mm restrictor in the cars themselves which should reduce the variability,” he said.
“It will slow it down a little bit, but it won’t be like it was before Sandown – you will still see very quick flow rates and I think it will only be a small change.
“It may give the drivers a little bit of relief in their driver changes, but I don’t think it will have much of an impact on the race.”
PremiAir shared Queensland Raceway on Monday with a Triple Eight Camaro and Blanchard Racing Team Mustang, both performing engine testing ahead of the Great Race.
