Engineer Preview: Coates Hire Sydney 500
It has been a successful first year for race engineer Jason Gray, who stepped up to run Mark Winterbottom’s car for the 2015 season. And there’s hopefully more to come for the duo, who head to this weekend’s Coates Hire Sydney 500 leading the Championship by 179 points ahead of Craig Lowndes with 300 on offer.
Despite being on the cusp of the big prize, according to Gray, the mindset is essentially the same.
“We try our hardest to get pole position and win every race so this weekend will be no different,” he told v8supercars.com.au.
“We need to average 14th if Lowndes wins every race.
“Qualifying up front is our main focus as this means you avoid a lot of the lap one carnage and can then dictate the race.”
The Pepsi Max engineer – who has been part of the engineering team at Prodrive for five seasons – believes the team’s engineering department is the strongest it has ever been.
“Race engineering Frosty has been an amazing challenge,” he said.
“His hard work and dedication inspires me to do my upmost best and challenge myself to improve and constantly see what I can do better.
“I was lucky to be taught by Frosty’s previous race engineers – who are some of the best engineers in pit lane – who got me involved in all aspects of race engineering.”
Gray explained the ins and outs of the Coates Hire Sydney 500.
The circuit
Gray believes the 3.42km Homebush circuit is the toughest track on the V8 Supercars calendar.
“The tight walls and kerbs give no room for error,” he said.
“And when you combine this with drivers not in the championship fight eager to finish the year on a high, the result can only be carnage.”
Frosty and the team have had mixed results at the street track, which has been the title decider since 2009.
“We success here in the past but like everyone else we have also had our share of DNFs,” Gray said.
The cars
“With the many straights leading to low speed corners this circuit requires a car that remains stable while braking and drives well off the corner,” Gray explained.
“However the many tight sharp corners require engineers to find a compromise that maximises drive out but still gives the car enough mid-corner turn.”
Setup focuses on good braking stability and good drive, with turn one a danger point on the circuit, particularly off the start. Winterbottom was caught out there twice last year.
Practice and qualifying
Keep an eye on teams running green tyres in practice on Friday.
“With only two sets of pre-marked tyres and five sets of greens, teams may elect to run a set of greens in practice to get a read on the car’s green tyre balance before qualifying on Saturday,” Gray explained.
“On Saturday, qualifying is the most important part of the race.
“However, unlike previous rounds the compulsory pit stop in both Saturday races will give an opportunity to gain a few extra positions with a well-planned and executed strategy.”
Running an ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout Shootout means the approach can be different on Sunday.
“Cars will have two or three green tyre sets available for Sunday qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout.
“The first priority – getting into the shootout – may require teams to use all of their remaining green tyre sets in Sunday’s preliminary qualifying session and then have no green tyres left if they make the shootout.
“The shootout always has a few close calls and is sure to be entertaining for the fans.”
Tyres
Clearly, tyre management is an important aspect this weekend, across qualifying and the three races.
“With five sets of hard tyres to complete seven race stints teams will have to find a compromise,” Gray said.
“The short races on Saturday will see teams most likely only fit rear tyres at the compulsory pit stops, requiring six tyres for each race.
“To maximise race two, teams will have to use another six tyres, leaving only eight good tyres (two sets) for Sunday’s three-stint race. This will mean combining the best used tyres from Sat to make a third set.
“Teams may decide to compromise race two and re-use four tyres from race one which will leave them with 12 new tyres (three sets) for race three.”
Sunday strategy
“Sunday’s race will be about who has the best race car pace,” Gray explained.
“A quick car that has qualified poorly can make up positions by running in clear air and out of sequence with the pack.
“There is a very high chance of a Safety car at some point which will give further strategy options.”
Two car teams can split their cars by running one on an alternate strategy.
“If two team cars have qualified very close together one of them will run a compromised strategy to avoid the costly queue.”
The critical lap – when the car can be refueled and make it home – is lap 40 on Sunday.
The Coates Hire Sydney 500 kicks off tomorrow – click here for all the event info.
