Gomersall will field a wildcard entry at the Ipswich Super440 before joining Super2 teammate Campbell Logan at The Bend 500.
With fellow Tickford Super2 driver Reuben Goodall set to pilot the same car at Townsville next week, the team could not afford any damage to the car during Monday’s test.
Gomersall hit the track shortly before 9:00am, completing several long runs throughout the day before the test was ultimately cut short in the late afternoon by rain.
The young gun was eager to assess the differences between the Gen2 and Gen3 cars, plus learn the fundamentals of racing at the top level.
“Coming into the day, I didn’t have a lot of experience in these cars, so I was keen to see the difference between the Gen2,” Gomersall told Speedcafe.
“And look, I feel like 80, 90 percent of it’s almost there. There’s a few little differences I had to learn throughout the day. Obviously, we did some pit stop practice, pit entries, pit exits, all the little things you got to learn, the one percenters.
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“So, I think I got up to speed at a decent rate. It would have been nice if we could have someone else like Cam [Waters] or Tom [Randle] to jump in and baseline, but from what we know, I think it’s pretty promising.
“I don’t have heaps of high expectations going into the round, just getting comfortable and doing a lot of learning today.”
With limited sprint rounds available for teams to run a wildcard entry, the option to race at Queensland Raceway was an easy choice for Gomersall.
“Reuben was going to do Townsville, and it just fell in the right place that this is my home round, I’ve one heaps of laps here, I raced Super2 here last year as well,” Gomersall said.
“So it’s one of those no-brainers, really, when we’ve got the opportunity. I think it’s going to be a really good track to make my debut.”
After completing the day’s running, Gomersall was comfortable with the relative familiarity of the Gen3 car compared to what he’s used to.
“It kind of just feels like a Super2 car with less aero and a better tyre,” Gomersall added.
“You definitely notice that lack of aero balance through some of the high-speed corners, but the tyre – the soft and super soft – drives way better [than the hard].
“With everything being controlled it’s a lot closer, the cars in Gen3 versus Gen2, so you can really see how important your driving style and technique is to get the most out of the car.”
Having taken on a mentor role in Tickford’s Super2 program in recent years, 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom was on hand to oversee the day.
Winterbottom was impressed not only with how quickly Gomersall got up to speed across the test day, but also how he’s fit into the Tickford environment.
“I think Ben’s really good, I think he didn’t realise how much talent he had when we inherited him, we’re lucky to have him,” Winterbottom said.
“He’s got really good driver inputs in his technique, I think he’ll surprise a few people in the Gen3 car, he’ll get rewarded more in that than the Super2 car.
“Sometimes they don’t know how good they are until they hop in with a few teammates who push them, and straight away he was fast.
“We saw him on the front row at Round 1. Then in Darwin a couple of little things let him down and he could have been on the front row again.
“He’s consistently proven that he’s one of the front-runners.”
Winterbottom noted how Gomersall had grown in the short time with Tickford after Triple Eight ended its Super2 program last year.
“What Ben’s got on his side is raw pace, a really good driving style and a very well natured mentality,” he said.
“You don’t know if he’s upset or happy, he’s Oscar Piastri-like where he’s hard to read. But he’s hungry, he wants it, and works hard in the background.
“I can see him going into Supercars, he’s got the ability to do it, you need to put the runs on the board to get that confidence and I think he’s at that level now.
“Last year, it was a tough year, a few up and down moments and when you’re in Triple Eight, you’re always in the spotlight.
“But now with four guys in the team, you can roll out and if someone’s quicker, then he needs to work hard to beat them and he’s doing that.”
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