Russell: I want another podium

Queensland Raceway is special territory for Novocastrian Motorsport's Aaren Russell.

In 2014, the Newcastle-native secured his first ever V8 Supercars Dunlop Series podium - a result that was four years in the making.

Since then, Russell has gone on to claim another two round podiums - a second place at Sydney Olympic Park and a third place at the first round this year in Adelaide - and has voiced his desire to repeat last year's success this weekend at the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.

"I don't want to put myself under too much pressure," he told v8supercars.com.au on his return to Queensland Raceway.

"The competition has just grown immensely this year, it's a harder series, the gaps are closer.

"But it's always in the back of my head that we got our first podium here and I want to do it again and I want to do it at every round.

"Here [at Queensland Raceway], we'll see what we can do."

In his bid to return to the front end of the field, the Novocastrian driver completed a test day at Queensland Raceway a week out from the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.

The test also posed as an opportunity for Russell to shakedown his Plus Fitness Falcon, after the #58 entry copped substantial damage in a lap one crash during the final race in Townsville.

The incident forced Russell to fly up to Brisbane and clock several hours re-building his Ford at the Paul Morris Motorsport workshop - a job he completed the majority of on his own.

Despite the frustrating end to his Townsville campaign, Russell maintains his Novocastrian Motorsport squad iscontinuing to make the gains that will see him be a podium contender again during the second half of the season.

"We're getting close," Russell said.

"There's just been a few things that have gone wrong in the meetings, a few things that were out of our control that have happened that has put us at the back, some silly little issues.

"A bit more time with the car [is needed], we're trying to understand it and that's why we're doing test days to try and understand the car and get it to handle a bit better and bridge that gap."

Coupled with a difficult weekend at Winton where he finished 12th for the round, Russell's Townsville results have dragged him outside of the top ten in the series standings to currently sit in 11th position.

Prodrive Racing Australia's Cameron Waters will enter the fifth round with the series lead, leading two-time champion Paul Dumbrell by 145 points. Jack Le Brocq trails in third, while Chris Pither and Todd Hazelwood round out the top five.

The Dunlop Series' assault of the 'paperclip' kicks off with two practice sessions on Friday, ahead of qualifying on Saturday and three races across the weekend.