JACOBSON BELIEVES MORE TOP 10S ARE AROUND THE CORNER
One of the surprise performances of the Australian Grand Prix weekend in the Supercars paddock was Garry Jacobson who scored three top 10 finishes with the PremiAir Racing team – but why was he so quick and can it be replicated?
Jacobson explained that the team reset after a difficult round in Tasmania and that was the main contribution to the success in Melbourne.
“We missed a couple of mechanical things that weren’t necessarily car handling things at Symmons Plains,” Jacobson told AUTO ACTION.
“It was obviously the thing to fix, which is good, and we had a pretty hard chat after the round.
“We had a new gearbox, we had a new steering rack, and all of a sudden, I could go out and actually drive the car properly.
“It shows that when everything’s good, we can be competitive and that just shows that the car setup was far from the issue for us. It was just making sure that everything was reset – we had another go at things and I was able to go out there and go quicker straightaway.”
After struggling for straight-line speed in Tasmania, at Albert Park, Jacobson set the fastest speed of anyone throughout the weekend, and this was giving him tenths of a second straight away.
“We achieved more straight-line speed so, naturally, the pressure was o me a little bit – I wasn’t trying to play catch up all the time,” he explained.
“At Symmons Plains we were up to 10km/h an hour slower down the end of each straight.
The extra straight-line speed helps me save my tyres too.”
Jacobson believes that the Australian Grand Prix track is a bit of an outlier as a fast-flowing circuit and knows it will not be a given that the team will in the top 10 in Perth – however he is confident that the team can steadily move forward.
“All of those elements I mentioned before have probably given the category a bit of a surprise to see my results improve so quick,” he said.
“I’m more than aware that this is one track out of the year, the motivation from Symmons Plains was we can’t be at the back of the field… we have to keep improving.
“We wanted to implement the same focus and processes that Triple Eight do in-house and bring it into our own facility, which we will eventually have.
“We’re excited to ruffle a few feathers on the grid to try and fight for those championship points against the Tickford and DJR cars – if we can keep pushing, I believe that we can do that too.
“We want to work closely with Broc and Shane this year, that’s our intention.
“We know that we wouldn’t be able to have a car that’s competitive without their support and the relationship is very strong and in a good position at the moment.”
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