What the teams said: Tasmania Friday
Teams had plenty to unpack after an hour of action around Symmons Plains on Friday of the Tasmania SuperSprint – hear what they had to say.
Team 18 – 1st David Reynolds 5th Mark Winterbottom
“We ended up quickest overall, which is awesome,” Reynolds said. “As soon as I arrived on pit lane, I had an engine misfire and it took like 10 or 15 minutes to figure it out and fix it. I love those feelings when you roll out of the truck and you can drive your car and it’s got grip. We made it slightly better over the runs and that was our day.”
“Good day. We learnt a lot today,” Winterbottom said. We ran a little bit different car to Dave and he’s got strengths in spots and I’ve got strengths in spots. We’ve got a really good lot of data, so we’ll adapt his strengths for tomorrow. We know where it is and hopefully get two cars up the front and stay dry.”
PremiAir Nulon Racing – 2nd James Golding 12th Tim Slade
“It has been a pretty good day and a good start to the weekend, to roll out P2 for practice one is really good,” Golding said.
“The last time we saw this (early result) we had a pretty good weekend, so I am looking forward to seeing what we can do this time around.”
“It was not a bad day,” Slade said. The things that we need to improve on are pretty clear so we will see what we can do there – it would be nice if it is dry tomorrow so we can get a read on the changes we will make overnight, but it could be a different ballgame.”
Erebus – 3rd Jack Le Brocq 11th Brodie Kostecki
“Great day for us,” Le Brocq said. We are building on what we have been learning over the last few rounds.
“From Darwin we have been heading down a path and the guys have done a great job
BK and George Commins were also working together well so we have tried a few things on both cars. Great start to the weekend.”
Matt Stone Racing – 4th Cam Hill 6th Nick Percat
“We rolled out and the car seemed pretty competitive out of the truck. We made a few changes and after that the car felt even better. I’m really happy,” Hill said.
“MSR has had good form for many years here, so I knew the car would be good, but probably a little bit better than I expected. Always a pleasant surprise from the driver’s seat. We just went through a bit of a programme, made the car better, made the car worse; the last run the car was pretty speedy,” Percat said.
Brad Jones Racing – 7th Bryce Fullwood 18th Andre Heimgartner 21st Jaxon Evans 23rd Macauley Jones
Image: DMAC Photography
“Really good start here at Tasmania and I think the car is really competitive,” Fullwood said. The times are super close, as we expect here but to finish seventh there, and our run was out in the open with no tow, I think is relatively strong.”
“Bit of a bit of a rough day. Just struggled a bit with the car, with the feel, had some little issues with the brake bias and just wasn’t very comfortable,” Heimgartner said.
“Long day for one hour. We didn’t run greens [tyres] at the end there,” Jones said. Feel like the car balance isn’t too bad. It’s somewhat predictable which is good, but I feel like we can tune it up a little bit more. The track’s pretty dirty out there, so took a little bit to set in.”
“First day ever on track at Symmons Planes for me,” Evans said. Feel like we weren’t too far away, considering we don’t have any experience here. Was pretty happy with progression as the session went on.”
Triple Eight – 8th Broc Feeney 9th Will Brown
Image: DMAC Photography
“I was probably a little bit off the pace for the first half of the session,” Feeney said. But we were a bit more competitive at the end when we put different tires on. We’re probably not super comfortable with where we are at the moment and we still have got a bit to find, but we’ll see.”
“We were trending really well at the start of practice and had really good pace sitting in P1 when we put our tires on at the end, but we didn’t get as big of a gain and ended up in ninth. I didn’t do the best lap, I think that our car’s better than that, we could be a top three car. I think it shows because our customer cars are up the front,” Brown said.
Tickford – 10th Cam Waters 19th Thomas Randle
Image: DMAC Photography
“I’m looking forward to racing Symmons Plains,” Randle said pre event. We have some great momentum as a team coming off some really strong rounds. Back on the Super Soft tyre this weekend and it’s the last SuperSprint round of the year so I’m keen to hopefully grab some strong results before we roll into the enduros!
Walkinshaw Andretti United – 13th Ryan Wood 14th Chaz Mostert
Image: DMAC Photography
“Decent start to Tassie with practice done and dusted, the times are as always super tight. We’ll need to dial in the #25 Optus Mustang to put the best foot forward,” Mostert said.
Blanchard Racing Team 15th James Courtney 24th Aaron Love
Grove Racing – 16th Richie Stanaway 20th Matt Payne
Dick Johnson Racing – 17th Will Davison 22nd Anton De Pasquale
“Haven’t rolled out of the truck where we would like but the margins are tiny around this place so we’ll get to work overnight and push forward tomorrow,” Davison said.
Image: DMAC Photography
Tasmania SuperSprint schedule
Practice 1: 1: D. Reynolds 51.1376 2: J. Golding +0.1061 3: J. Le Brocq +0.1628
Practice 2: Sat 11.05-11.25
Qualifying: Sat 13.00-13.40
Race 17: Sat 16.10 (55 laps)
Practice 3: Sun 10.20-10.40
Qualifying: Sun 12.40-13.30
Race 18: Sun 15.05 (55 laps)
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