Sydney Motorsport Park, also known as Eastern Creek, plays host to round 9 of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship this weekend, so we’ve packed up the truck and headed up the Hume Highway.
Being a SuperSprint round, the final before enduro season, we’re set for a 120km race on Saturday, and a 200km race on Sunday.
Since the last round at Ipswich, the team had a productive test day at Winton last Tuesday.
The engineering team were able to work through a designated program of evaluation on the day, which they gained some valuable data from.
It was a positive step in the development process, which will continue in Sydney.
Now the attention turns to this weekend.
Sydney Motorsport Park is a purpose-built circuit, with a mix of high speed and low speed corners. The high-speed entries into turns two and eight provide great passing opportunities.
We are on the super-soft tyre again, so the lap records are a chance to tumble, just like it did on Saturday in Ipswich when JC set the fastest ever racing lap time around Queensland Raceway.
The focus for the team is continuing to make progress by working through a protocol with focused ambitions for the remainder of 2017.
As we continue to work on the development of our cars, we have decided that Alex Somerset’s time be more valuable solely focused on the design element of the car, which means he will no longer race engineer car 2. Rob Starr successfully stepped into that role at the recent test day, and will continue this weekend.
We are proud and privileged to have Rob, a legend of the sport, and a man with 26-years experience within the team stepping into the role.
Car 2 and 22 hit the track at 12:50pm on Friday August 18 for the first of three practice sessions across the weekend.
Time to go to work.
James Courtney
“After the test day last week, I’m looking forward to getting back on track again.
“It’ll be good to put some of the information we learnt into action this weekend, while continuing that development process.
“Growing up in Penrith, Sydney Motorsport Park is somewhat of a ‘home event’ for me, so it’s good to get back there, I’m looking forward to it.”
Scott Pye
“I’ve been looking forward to this round since the test day, we walked away from that feeling positive.
“We still have work to do, but I think the team as a whole is all moving in the right direction.
“The race pace of the car has been reasonably strong in recent rounds, so continuing to improve that qualifying pace will be a focus of ours again. If we are able to gain 1-2 tenths, it will see a big improvement up the grid.
“It’s an important weekend for us to continue the development process, especially with the endurance season coming up over the next few months.”
TECH SPECS
Length 3.905km
Direction Anti-Clockwise
Average Speed 154km/h
Top Speed 265km/h