Clarkie’s Darwin Notepad – Friday
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and long pants and hoodies were left in the hotel room—31°C, 31°C, and 32°C for the three days. There is a 0% chance of rain or, in Bruce-speak, a 100% chance of sunshine.
On a day when the AVL testing program for the engines was revealed, an optional tweak to Ford’s Centre of Gravity was unveiled. From this round, Mustangs are allowed to fit lighter side skirts, which enables a centre of gravity shift. When combined with the lighter bonnets previously allowed, this gets them closer to the Chev.
It is generally accepted that aero, as one of the pillars of parity, is right, but CoG and the engines aren’t fully locked down yet.
Brodie Kostecki stopped without completing a flying lap in the practice session. Kostecki’s new Chev engine had some go awry, and a new set of sparkplugs and a couple of other changes got it running again. Kenny Mac was on hand to solve the problem. He got running again after 20 minutes and showed no speed in that session but was sitting inside of the top 10 in qualifying until the last fast lap was run.
Ken McNamara works on Brodie Kostecki’s engine during Practice 1 in Darwin. Phot: Andrew Clarke
Going into the final 10 minutes of Practice, Matt Payne topped the time sheets from last year’s Saturday winner here, Mark Winterbottom. Payne didn’t improve his time and ended the session in eighth, with James Golding and then Will Brown topping the times.
Practice One Top 10 – Brown, Golding, Le Brocq, Heimgartner, Waters, Winterbottom, Randle, Payne, Jones, Feeney.
Ryan Wood joined teammate Chaz Mostert in having a tough day in their Walkinshaw Andretti United Mustangs. He qualified 24th.
Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood were 22nd and 24th in qualifying, a complete turnaround from Perth’s form when Mostert dominated the racing. Mostert was tipping a late night with the engineers trying to unbuckle what went on, and Team Principal Bruce Stewart echoed those thoughts while cautioning, “You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
But with the entire field split by 0.8934s, the Walkinshaw Andretti United crew don’t have to make too big a gain to be competitive in the races. Mostert appeared to be losing a lot of time in the first sector, which runs from the start to the entrance to the valley.
Mostert hopes the half-hour practice session tomorrow morning can show some progress.
Matt Payne, who started the weekend with speed, including a quick early run in qualifying, tumbled down the order as the other cars picked up the pace on their second qualifying runs. The fastest five cars were all under the qualifying record. Payne and teammate Richie Stanaway ended up qualifying in 13th and 14th, which is the closest they have been all weekend.
Cooper Murray qualified 23rd in the Supercheap Auto wildcard entry out of Triple Eight. After using the first session to settle into the car and the team as he battled brake and radio dramas, he set himself up for qualifying, but things didn’t go according to plan.
“It was quite a big hit out that qualifying session – I think only having one practice session under my belt was a bit difficult for me being the first time here in Darwin in these cars, but we managed to come away with an ok position. It wasn’t where we’d like to be because I made a mistake on my lap, which cost us a fair few grid positions, so at least we know we can be further up the grid. I’m loving the experience so far, every second of it.”
It took a demon last lap by Anton De Pasquale to jump into the top 10 after the chequered flag. The Shell V-Power driver jumped a heap of spots with his lap, dumping Brodie Kostecki out of the shootout running. Will Davison was 17th in car #17.
Qualifying Order – Golding, Percat, Winterbottom, Feeney, Brown, De Pasquale, Slade, Waters, Heimgartner. Two cars from each of PremiAir, Team 18, and Triple Eight made up the bulk of the top 10. The Shootout is at 11:35 am local time, or just after midday on the east coast.
