Penrite Racing looking to move on from tough Tasmania

Penrite Racing are looking to put a difficult NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint behind them as the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship shifts into enduro mode at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.

After Matt Payne starred with a victory and a podium in the previous two rounds at Townsville and Sydney, the young Kiwi carried great form into Symmons Plains.

However, right from the outset it was clear that the Penrite Mustangs were off the pace, with Payne 20th and teammate Richie Stanaway 16th after Friday practice.

Whilst Stanaway would set the fastest time in the wet Saturday morning practice session, with Payne in ninth, Penrite Racing had a torrid weekend, featuring outside the top 15 in every other session for the weekend.

Penrite Racing Team Principal David Cauchi told the Schick Cool Down Lap Podcast that whilst they missed the setup window right from the outset, there were also other factors at play.

“We obviously didn't nail the car setup, we didn't execute our sessions right, we made quite a few mistakes, here and there, engineering, driving, some decisions during races.

“Just not our weekend, and you’ve gotta be on top of all of those things to be competitive in this sport at the moment.”

Penrite Racing’s off weekend was personified by Matt Payne’s drive through penalty he received on Sunday for driving past a red light at pit exit.

Payne entered pit lane a lap after everyone else had completed their compulsory pit stops under safety car, with the team believing the full course yellow condition would be in place until after Payne pitted.

However, the field was released to catch the safety car and form the safety car queue, with the field coming around to the pit straight before Payne was legally allowed to exit pit lane.

“We thought that the Safety Car or the full course yellow would go until at least all the cars had pitted.

"There'd been some communication about that in the previous couple of rounds, but that's not what they ended up doing. So yeah, it didn't work out for us.”

Moving on from a difficult weekend in Tasmania, Cauchi is eagerly anticipating the beginning of the enduro season, where they welcome experienced and fast co-drivers in Garth Tander and Dale Wood.

Tander moves from the #26 to the #19 this year, where pairs with protégé Payne, whilst Carrera Cup frontrunner Wood moves from Brad Jones Racing to partner reigning Bathurst champ Stanaway.

“We're super excited. We've got Garth in the car and Dale Wood, two seriously experienced drivers, tracks that we performed reasonably well at in the past.

"Richie obviously has driven at Sandown and Bathurst and won at Bathurst [last year], so yeah, we've got everything to look forward to coming into the enduros."

The Penrite Oil Sandown 500 takes place from September 13-15, tickets for the 60th anniversary running of the Sandown enduro are available on the Supercars.com website here.