Shane van Gisbergen says it is “gutting” that he and Red Bull Ampol Racing are still chasing a handling issue in his Chevrolet Camaro.
Car #97 has been plagued by handling dramas since the opening day of the Hidden Valley event, which have carried through to practice at the NTI Townsville 500 this weekend.
Despite still managing to be classified fourth fastest at the end of two, half-hour practice sessions around the Reid Park Street Circuit, van Gisbergen was a downbeat figure.
“Today didn’t go our way unfortunately,” he said.
“We seem to have the same issues as what we had in Darwin, so instead of trying to utilise our practice sessions to make the car faster, we’re fixing issues which is a real shame; it’s gutting.
“The car is obviously fast, but we’re focusing on errors and trying to make things better instead of focusing on speed, and it’s really puzzling.
“Our qualifying run at the end of the practice session was challenging as well.
“The car is not handling well at the braking zones and I’m having some steering issues down the straights which isn’t nice.
“We’ll work on those issues tonight and hopefully make some changes to the car so we can focus on racing rather than issues.”
The 2022 Supercars champion finished 0.3322s off the pace in Practice 2, although only 0.0852s away from second placed Bryce Fullwood after Jack Le Brocq topped the session by 0.2470s.
Van Gisbergen’s team-mate Broc Feeney ended up ninth in the #88 Camaro.
“Our qualifying run at the end of practice went okay – we’re still missing a little bit, but we’re somewhat in the mix,” he remarked.
“I think another tenth puts us somewhere in the top two, but we’re quite a long way off the quickest, so we still have a bit to find.”
Qualifying for Race 16 of the Repco Supercars Championship starts tomorrow at 10:15 local time/AEST, with a Top 10 Shootout to follow at 12:00.
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