Supercars Championship teams face a balancing act in this week’s testing as they try to bring co-drivers up to speed for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
For most squads, they have just the one test day left before practice at Sandown on Friday, September 15, and that means just one more day for co-drivers to come to terms with the new-for-2023 Gen3 Supercars before matters start to get serious.
However, for the Ford teams in particular, there is still much to learn about their package ahead of the two longest races of the year, with the Mustang’s new aerodynamic package still only three events old.
Penrite Racing Team Principal David Cauchi told Speedcafe, “Absolutely, we still have to do some performance running because I wouldn’t say we completely understand our package and it’s been changing throughout the year, so that makes it harder.
“But, you’ve got to balance those things off; it’s important to give your co-drivers as much time as possible.
“Garth [Tander] has been in the car a little bit this year, so that’s positive, but Kevin [Estre] hasn’t.
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“But, he does lots of racing as well, so that side of thing we don’t have to worry about; it’s really just getting him used to this car.”
Tander, who will pair up with fellow Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds, has been part of Grove Racing’s testing programme since their very first day with their first Gen3 Supercar.
Porsche factory driver Estre, on the other hand, will only drive one for the first time today ahead of his gig in Matt Payne’s #19 entry at the enduros, when he completes an ‘Evaluation Day’ at Winton.
Just a handful of teams/entries are in action today, although the full, 28-car field for the Great Race is set to test tomorrow at either Winton or Queensland Raceway.
Truck Assist Racing will be in action at the latter with its Chevrolet Camaros, and it has also enjoyed rookie test days this year courtesy of Cameron Hill.
The task for the Matt Stone-owned squad is therefore more straightforward, with laps for Jayden Ojeda and Jaylyn Robotham, who will join Jack Le Brocq and Hill respectively, the priority.
“It’s definitely going to be co-driver-focused because these cars are different to the old cars,” Stone told Speedcafe.
“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a couple of ride days where we’ve been able to give our co-drivers laps.
“Obviously the focus is less about performance – because we’ve been pushing for performance all year – and more about procedures.
“We haven’t had a proper long-distance race with these fuel systems, different tyre rules, different brake rules now, so there’s plenty for us to practice and make sure we get right going into Sandown.”
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