A host of Supercars teams will be in action today with tests set to take place at Queensland Raceway and Winton Motor Raceway.
The break between the Winton Super Sprint and next week’s CrownBet Darwin Triple Crown has allowed teams to regroup and push on with development plans ahead of the next crucial phase of the championship.
Those taking advantage of the break are series leaders DJR Team Penske, who will head to Ipswich alongside fellow Queensland based teams Triple Eight and Tekno Autosports.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, Prodrive will share Winton with Garry Rogers Motorsport and Nissan Motorsport, who will field a solitary Altima for Bryce Fullwood to conduct an evaluation day.
Triple Eight has placed a significant importance on the day as it bids to close the gap to DJRTP.
Six-time champion Jamie Whincup, who is yet to record a race win this season, believes the squad is beginning to make ground on the opposition following a one-two finish last time out at Winton.
While progress is being made, Whincup is expecting a heavy schedule as his team looks to improve several areas of his Commodore.
“We are taking the day unbelievably seriously to maximise the day. We have got a full day scheduled,” Whincup told Speedcafe.com.
“There is heaps of work to do as there are so many areas that we need to improve on to catch the opposition. We need a good day.
“We will be so busy with our own schedule that we won’t know they (DJR Team Penske) are there to be honest.
“If we don’t have a good day then it will make life pretty hard for ourselves, but if we have a good day and move forward it will give us an opportunity to take it to the rest of the field.”
Championship leader Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin will jump aboard the Shell-backed Falcon FGX in a bid to unlock more potential from its recent developments.
Tekno Autosports also has a busy day planned with Will Davison expected to trial several developments on his Commodore.
The reigning Bathurst 1000 winner, lying 16th in the standings, heads into the test on the back of four consecutive top 10 results after a difficult start to the year.
Team owner Jonathon Webb, who has been suffering from an illness recently, may also cut some laps if available.
“It is a pretty busy program to go through,” team manager Steve Greer told Speedcafe.com.
“It is all performance based stuff that we are testing to improve car speed.
“We have put so much effort into planning these days so it is important it runs smoothly and we get all the miles completed, so we can spend the next week analysing the results before we go to Darwin.”
At Winton, Prodrive will field its four Falcons driven by Mark Winterbottom, Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters and Jason Bright.
While Mostert and Waters led the charge at the Winton Super Sprint last time out, Winterbottom says the test day couldn’t come soon enough having endured a challenging start to his campaign.
Nissan Motorsport has elected against running all four of its cars and instead will run through a program with Dunlop Super2 driver Fullwood driving Rick Kelly’s chassis.
Fullwood is set to take over the car for use in the second tier category at Townsville in July.
The Braeside operation is hoping to use the break to focus its attention on ramping up its development plans at the factory.
“We decided about month ago that we are not going to test with the four cars, so this is a compromise,” team manager Scott Sinclair told Speedcafe.com.
“We can knock a few things over that have been in the pipeline with this test day and it is a good opportunity for Bryce to have a few laps.
“For us it is about consolidation. We have had five or six races in a row so time at the factory is crucial.
“We thought we would spend some tine at the factory getting our ducks in a row and attack it that way and reschedule a test for another time.”
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