Back to Form in Townsville 🏆
Hey everyone,
I can safely say that Townsville remains one of my favourite events on the calendar - the vibe, fans, sunshine, and street circuit all make for what is year on year an epic atmosphere 🌴
Rolling out on Friday, I was concerned after practice 1 that we had missed the mark on the philosophy of our rear end - we had more slides to open the weekend than the Wet ‘n Wild Theme Park 😅
Thankfully, the crew made some great changes during sessions, and our problems were fixed and we were hooked up again, making our way into the shootout on Saturday. Mirrors are at high risk on street circuits, and Townsville was no different, especially in the shootout when you’re wedged up against the walls.
Managed to post the second fastest time in the lap, and line up in P2 for the 88-lap race, which, turns out is a bloody long time in a Supercar!
We had an epic exchange throughout the race, and just about everything was thrown at us. Tyre deg played a massive role, fuel, and then a random blast of stormy weather there at the end, which unfortunately I was the pioneer of being out front and that hurt me a lot.
Ultimately, after an epic battle with Cam (Waters), Tom (Randle), and Will (Davison), we managed to secure the second step of the podium, and I had my girls there with me to celebrate! I was stoked to get this result for the team, and the vibes were high entering Sunday.
Sunday rolled around and we exited the garage pretty racey again, jumping straight into a 15-minute qualifying session and posting the sixth-fastest lap to get us into the shootout again.
Unfortunately we didn’t have access to the grip for the shootout lap, as well as making changes overnight towards creating a better race car, so one lap pace was a challenge and we ended up with P8 to begin the race.
Another pretty wild race followed, once the chaos of the opening laps cleared up we started making some quick moves to get up into the top three, we were super speedy during the beginning stages, as the rain clouds started to move in…
This threw strategy for a bit of a wack, and then all of a sudden those who we were racing were in different spots on the racetrack before the final stop. By then we rolled out in P3, put in a charge, but that’s where we would stay.
All in all, Townsville was a really solid weekend. As mentioned I had a bit of a scare after the first practice, as race drivers do, but the boys and girls of our team really did a fantastic job the make and keep the #25 in a fast window all weekend long, and gain some really valuable points towards the championship.
Short turnaround now, back to a more traditional circuit in Sydney, and we’ll do our homework in the time between to roll out fast.
Cheers,
Chaz 🤙