Rollercoaster Weekend in Darwin š«
Hey everyone,
Well, weirdly enough, my theme this weekend was cheeseburgers š Who had that on their Supercars bingo card this weekend? More on that laterā¦
Getting up to the top end is a great time and it always welcomes a fun part of the year, with a couple of awesome events happening in northern Australia. Darwin really gets behind Supercars which is cool, as we all saw with the track to town drive.
Itās a strange feeling driving a Supercar on the main roads, you always feel like youāre going way faster than you are š But all in all, the fans were about it, the city was too, and it was an epic way to begin the event.
We had high expectations entering Darwin after Perth, although one key unknown for us was the super soft tyre, and woweee, did we ever struggle on this compound. From the get-go we were on the back foot, struggling to extract one-lap pace from the car.
Ultimately, the cheeseburger theme began as we wrapped up qualifying on Friday - we did throw a bunch of changes at the car during the practice session, but it was no cigar on pace and we were buried down in P22.
When I was a kid karting and qualified down the back, Dad would make a deal that every car I passed was one cheeseburger from McDonald's, which was usually enough motivation for me to get after it. Turns out, itās no different as an adult, as each car turned into a cheeseburger in my eyes, and we made our way up to P5 by race endā¦17 cheeseburgers.
In seriousness though, it was a testament to the WAU crew, who dialled in the car for the race, bolted on four sets of fresh rubber during my stop, and had the better strategy than anyone else out there. Thanks team!Ā
Sunday, we were feeling a bit more optimistic, but again just couldnāt get a solid lap around Hidden Valley. Weāll need to rip into the data between now and the next rounds with the super softs, because having those sorts of days whilst chasing a championship just doesnāt work.
We found ourselves back down the order in P20 as a starting position, which turned into a pretty frustrating day. A lot of the other teams clued onto our strategy from the day before, so the passes werenāt there to be made, and we crossed the line in P16.
Overall, a pretty disappointing weekend and not where weād like to be - itās disappointing for the whole crew, and weāll need to bounce back for redemption in Townsville. Thatās another one of my favourite events, and our WAU cars have typically been good on street circuits, so weāll be looking to roll out of the blocks strong.
Cheers,
Chaz š¤