Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen says his handling woes have been cured after switching chassis for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.
Van Gisbergen was fastest in Practice 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park in the Chevrolet Camaro Supercar which had been in use for the Supercheap Auto wildcard entry.
It came after he experienced handling issues at both the Hidden Valley and NTI Townsville 500 events.
According to the three-time Supercars champion, Triple Eight Race Engineering believes it has figured out what the drama was, but chose to change chassis as a precaution.
They will have a chance to confirm their suspicions when the field stays on at SMP on Monday for a ride day.
“It’s fine,” said van Gisbergen, post-session.
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“It’s drive down the straight, straight, instead of variable steering, which is nice.
“We have the other car here; we can try it on the ride day.
“The guys think they figured out what it was but we just changed chassis to be safe, but we’ll confirm it on Monday.”
Speaking more generally, the New Zealander gave a big-picture assessment of what a Gen3 Supercar feels like, as the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship moves into its second half.
“Don’t know if I loved it but it just felt different,” remarked van Gisbergen of the new chassis.
“I don’t know; like, we’re obviously good but I feel like I’m driving around on wets.
“Like, I’m driving around at 40 percent, trying to keep the car on the track but obviously we had pretty good tyres, so we’ll see.”
“You want to push but you just can’t push these cars, the way the car works,” he added.
“It likes to be finessed and driven slowly, I guess it feels like.
“I don’t know, it is what it is.”
Van Gisbergen’s team-mate, Broc Feeney, was seventh-fastest in Practice 1 at 0.6785s off Car #97’s benchmark of 1:30.4941s.
Eight Camaros made it into the top 10, with Chaz Mostert best of the Ford contingent in fifth on a 1:31.1333s in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang.
Practice 2 starts this afternoon at 14:10 local time/AEST.
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