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Tickford Racing heads to Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria today where it will run its #55 and #56 Gen3 Mustangs in its first test since just after the season-opener.
Under Rookie Test conditions, Castrol Mustang #55 driver Thomas Randle remains eligible in his second season of Supercars Championship competition, while 2023 debutant Declan Fraser will have more time behind the wheel of the #56 Tradie Ford Mustang.
It will also run its Super2 entries of Brad Vaughan and Elly Morrow ahead of the 150th Super2 Series round at Townsville.
The running comes after the team’s scheduled May 30 Rookie Test and May 31 test for all four Tickford cars was rained out, which makes today’s appearance at Winton the team’s first test in over three months, after Fraser’s run at The Bend in mid-March.
Tickford Team Principal Tim Edwards says the limited testing opportunities make such outings even more valuable in the Gen3 era.
“They’ve got so much they want to explore on these cars,” Edwards told Speedcafe.
“Not having had a test day, there’s so much that you can’t do at a race meeting because the window is so short for testing, so you don’t get to try so many things.
“So they’re desperately wanting to have a test day where we might only do 50 laps for the day, whereas a test day last year we’d run 100 laps, because we’ve got so many big changes that we need to get through to understand – well what does this do to the car – and you just haven’t got the opportunity to do that at a race meeting.”
In addition to today’s running, Tickford will use the first of its two allocated VCS Test days after the July 7-9 Townsville round, where the Gen3 Supercars field returns to the ‘500’ format for the first time since the season-opener at Newcastle.
That’s been a blessing after Cam Waters’ #6 Mustang was sideline by fire while leading Race 13 in Darwin from pole position and is currently being rebuilt by the team.
Tickford was not the only competitor that had a test day washout out, with fellow Melbourne-based teams Walkinshaw Andretti United, Grove Racing (Rookie Day), and championship leaders Erebus Motorsport (Driver Evaluation) not turning a wheel after arriving at Winton on May 31.
Brad Jones Racing returned the following day, being based relatively close by in Albury, New South Wales, where it tested all four of its Camaros and endurance co-drivers, apart from Jaxon Evans who had a date clash.
BJR performed strongly at Darwin, with Heimgartner scoring two second places in the R&J Batteries Camaro after adopting team-mate Fullwood’s Saturday set-up, after he’d finished fifth in the Middy’s Electrical Camaro.
Queensland teams that tested ahead of Darwin included Matt Stone Racing, which saw its first pole position and Supercars win after Jack Le Brocq put in a mighty effort to win Race 15 in the #34 Truck Assist Camaro.
MSR shared the test day with Triple Eight, who stole a march on championship rivals Erebus with a one-two in Race 14, closing the gap in both the teams and drivers’ standings.
Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen took the most points away from the event, Feeney the unofficial ‘round winner’.
Also on track during the test was Dick Johnson Racing, with Will Davison standing on a much-needed podium after Race 13 at Hidden Valley.
All three Northern teams used the time at Queensland Raceway to test their enduro co-drivers, with Triple Eight running their wildcard of Zane Goddard and Craig Lowndes as well.
With Erebus yet to test, and after its lowest scoring weekend of the season so far, Team Principal Barry Ryan said that it gives the team two test days ‘up its sleeve’ as it focuses on seat time for its co-drivers.
Tickford is expected to be joined at Winton today by Grove, which has also rescheduled a rookie day for Payne, as well as a host of Super2 teams.
Meanwhile, both Chevrolet and Ford homologation teams continue ongoing meetings after a ‘parity trigger’ was enacted after the Hidden Valley round.
