We’re back in our home state for round 3 of the championship, as we get ready to cross the bridge and park up at Phillip Island for the weekend.
The biggest focus as a team since the truck arrived back from Tasmania has been the rebuilds.
James Courtney has swapped to chassis 21 for the weekend, as chassis 22 heads to the fabrication shop to get cleaned up and rewelded.
For Scott Pye’s chassis 23, it spent the first part of the week in the repair shop getting a nip and tuck, before returning to the workshop on Thursday afternoon.
The guys have done an incredible job preparing two race cars ready for action this weekend.
Now let’s look forward. We’ve got 500kms of action waiting for us.
Phillip Island - one of the most highly regarded circuits in the world - is very different to Tasmania.
It’s fast, it’s flowing, and the corners are long and loaded. That means it's vital to have a car that has good mid corner speed and stability.
For Scott, it’s a place he’s been quick at the last few years. Combine that with some positive speed in the dry last round before the heavens opened up, and it’s a good platform to come in with.
It’ll also be great to see JC back where he belongs, on the starting grid. Sitting out of Sunday’s race was not something he enjoyed. Look for him to make a statement.
There will be two 250km races across the weekend, totaling 57 laps each. All running will be done on the soft tyre this weekend, the harder of the two compounds.
On-track action kicks off at 12pm Friday for Practice 1.
From the cockpit
Scott Pye
“Unfortunately Tassie happened. It’s a credit to the guys to get the cars back together, and back on track.
“Phillip Island is hopefully a clean weekend for all involved. It’s been a good circuit of mine, being on the podium last year. I’d like to be back on there this year.
“A lot of the high speed tracks I’ve had good speed at. This weekend will hopefully be the same, so that we can get a solid result out of it. Tasmania wasn’t what we wanted as a team, so we want to bounce back in the best way possible.
“We go into this with an open mind, and hopefully roll out on the track with a good package. It makes life a lot easier if you can be on the money from the start.”
James Courtney
“I’m pretty keen to put Tasmania in the rear view mirror, go out and have a full weekend of racing. It wasn’t fun sitting on the sidelines.
“Last year wasn’t that flash for us there, but we are looking forward to getting there and showing the improvement we have made. We had a ride day there late last year and the car was much better than it was during the race weekend.
“There is nowhere to hide at Phillip Island. You are in the corner for so long that you need to be on top of it all. A bad car is going to show up pretty easily, so it’s important that Terry (Kerr – Engineer) and I do a good job with the testing and maximize the time on track.”
PHILLIP ISLAND TRACK INFO
Length 4.45km
Direction Anti-Clockwise
Average Speed 174km/h
Top Speed 286km/h
Fastest Point End of the front straight
Slowest Point Turn 10
Qualifying Lap Record 1:30.6099 – 2013
Race Lap Record 1:32.0246 – 2013