Team 18 has rescheduled the shakedown of its two Chevrolet Camaros to tomorrow over a steering wheel configuration issue.
The Mount Waverley-based squad was set to shake down the #18 Mark Winterbottom and #20 Scott Pye machines at Winton today, but will now wait until the morning after encountering gremlins.
As at a short time ago, Supercars technical staff were looking over Car #20, but the problem is yet to be resolved.
Neither vehicle has left the garage today, meaning the squad can safely abandon the day without using up its shakedown allocation.
Team Manager Bruin Beasley told Speedcafe.com, “We’ve got a config issue with the steering wheel. It’s doing something weird.
“To be honest, we had the same problem last night; that’s why it’s dragged out a bit. We’ve got the guys here from Supercars here looking at it and we might as well get it right, spend the time today.
“Everything else is ready to go and get it right, go and have a beer, have dinner, come back tomorrow.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s the best thing to do at the moment because there’s no point running around if it’s not a hundred percent right.”
Both cars are having the issue, which Beasley explained as follows: “In layman’s terms, there’s a pin in there that’s causing some grief on the radio button side.
“For some reason, it seems to feel like it’s open all the time and it’s basically causing us a world of hurt.”
Shakedowns are held for the purpose of identifying such niggles, although it is not known at this stage if Team 18’s is a common problem.
“I’ve heard people did have some issues, but I don’t know if it’s the same problem,” said Beasley.
“Nothing of that has been shared. I would suggest that it might not be, but without knowing the facts, you don’t know.
“Look, you buy all the parts, you bolt it together, you stick it together… It’s not like we’ve cut the loom or we’ve patched it; it’s done something weird.
“So, if the man from Supercars can’t work it out, there’s something weird going on. Hopefully it’s something simple when they find it and, job done.”
While the field had collectively been set to wrap up shakedowns today, with three squads running cars for the first time at Queensland Raceway, it means Team 18 will be back at Winton tomorrow.
“We’ll run all day tomorrow and, look at it this way, we’ve got all day tomorrow to get it right,” noted Beasley.
“We’ve got all day this afternoon and tonight to get [the steering wheel issue] right, and then we can run.
“There’s no point going out half-arsed; if we can do it, let’s do it properly.”
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