There’s no rest for wicked! We’re headed straight from one Island to the next, as Phillip Island hosts Round 4 of the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
It was only three days ago we were racing around Symmons Plains, but attention quickly turned to this weekend, and the next two races of the season.
The truck arrived back at the workshop Tuesday morning, which means it’s a frantic two days to get them turned around and ready to go again.
There were positives to take from Tasmania which we have drawn from this week, as we continue to build momentum in 2019.
Saturday will be a special day for Scott Pye as he celebrates race start #200 in the Supercars Championship, the 66th with our team.
We’ve got a couple of special things planned for the day so keep an eye out.
Phillip Island, at 4.5kms long, is full of long-loaded high-speed corners, somewhat similar to Albert Park.
The length of the corners means a huge amount of load is placed on the car. If the mid-corner stability of the car isn’t right, it makes it extremely difficult to piece a lap together.
Like Tasmania, we have the knockout qualifying format across both days.
Supercars are once again taking the opportunity to trial something new this round. If a safety car is on circuit during the race, pit lane will be closed, meaning all stops have to be done under green flag conditions. That should limit the ‘double stacking’ we have seen in the past.
Cars will take to the track at 11:35am Friday, with four practice sessions, two qualifying and two races, 120kms and 200kms, scheduled for the weekend.
Scott Pye
“I can’t believe it’ll be race start 200 on the weekend, it’s crazy to think about, and something that will be special to reflect back on.
“It doesn’t change the job at hand though, the race pace was good in Tassie but we need to improve the qualifying package to be able to maximise it.
“Ensuring the car balance is good through the long corners like it was at the Grand Prix is critical here, it’s a definite focus of ours heading in.
“It’s nice to not have to wait long to get out there and get back into it!”
James Courtney
“It’s amazing to be back in a race car again this weekend, and to be straight back into it.
“At Phillip Island there’s nowhere to hide. You are in the corner for so long that you need to be on top of it all.
“As a team we took another step forward at Tasmania, so we’ve got to keep that momentum rolling. There were definite positives to take, but also areas we learnt more about.
“I can’t wait to get back out there.”