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Both Broc Feeney and Cooper Murray were late arrivals to the signing session after their engines shut down when they got too hot.
There were initial concerns that the cars would need to be towed back to Hidden Valley, however both were able to return under their own power.
Both engines appear to have escaped major damage, at least so far, with neither car undergoing an engine change before practice and qualifying the next day.
Speaking to Speedcafe, T8 managing director Jamie Whincup said investigations were ongoing into the issue, with fan failure the primary suspect.
All teams fitted cooling fans to their cars specifically for the Track to Town given they don’t run them in race spec.
According to Whincup, the performance of the cars during the 2024 livery launch in Toowoomba suggests that even the high ambient temperatures in Darwin shouldn’t have been an issue.
“We think our thermo fans didn’t work, or didn’t fully work,” said Whincup. “So we think it was more of a mechanical thing rather than an operational thing, so to speak.
“We haven’t done the analysis, but there’s a good chance that we didn’t do a good job with the thermo fan as opposed to some operational issue, or that it’s too hot up here for [the cars].
“We did a standing burnout in Toowoomba in 40-degree heat and the engine stayed at 80 degrees. So if trundling down into Darwin at 30 degrees overheated the thing, something is not right. We think the thermo fans didn’t come on.”
Despite the overheating dramas, Whincup says he’s a fan of the Track to Town concept that has now been used in New Zealand and Darwin.
His only concern is the resources required and what financial cost it could come to teams if it becomes a regular feature of race weekends.
“As a sport we’ve always got to look at ways to give more value to our fanbase and sponsors,” he said.
“The key to all is, how do you do it without costing too much money? Whether that’s [too much money] for teams or the sport. That’s the tricky bit.
“I’m absolutely all for it, but let’s make sure the Thursday doesn’t get too big so we’re flying in the day before and there’s a massive increase in costs down the line in teams land. That’s my only comment on it.
“But anything new, anything we can do, it’s fantastic.”
