Triple Eight successfully bedded in a trio of new chassis for its drivers at Queensland Raceway today ahead of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship campaign.
The Brisbane operation has endured a busy off-season undertaking new VF Commodore builds for drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes for use this season.
The last time the team took on such a project was back in 2013 when the Car of the Future was first introduced.
All three drivers completed the permitted 60km shakedown run without a hitch, although the team was forced to abandon a planned run on the new 2017 specification tyres due to adverse track conditions.
“The shakedown went pretty well but the only difficulty was the track was pretty dirty,” team manager Mark Dutton told Speedcafe.com.
“It just meant that we couldn’t quite do as much as we wanted to do.
“We really wanted to run the new tyre and get a bit of learning done ahead of the test day next week but we made the call not to.
“The track grip wasn’t there and we didn’t think we would get a good read.
“It was a good shakedown. There are always a few niggling things but they were all sorted.
“We had three new cars with no vibration issues so it has been a really good effort by everyone back at the workshop.”
While the track conditions were not conducive for fast times, Whincup is confident he has a solid race car underneath him going into the new season.
The six-time Supercars champion was pleased the day ran smoothly having experienced a rough shakedown when he debuted a new car in 2015.
“It is not guaranteed you have a clear run with shakedowns and we have had some tough ones over the years, but I’m happy with the car,” Whincup told Speedcafe.com.
“It hasn’t done anything wrong. The track was crazy slippy so we didn’t get any read on going fast, but we have a solid race car which is a good starting point.”
Reigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen reported no issues with his chassis.
The Kiwi swapped cars with Lowndes during the run to understand set up differences between the two machines.
Lowndes felt he benefited from the car swap with the opportunity opening his mind to a fresh set of potential tweaks ahead of the new campaign.
“We had a couple of electronic gremlins but the car ran strong,” Lowndes told Speedcafe.com.
“We tweaked some bits of the cockpit last year and I feel more comfortable in the car now.
“Today I drove Shane’s car and I found out about his driving style.
“When you operate in your window for some time you never look out of it, so it is nice to do that.”
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