Whincup hopeful of turnaround after 'massive' test
Supercars
31 Jul
Triple Eight hopeful of gains after "massive" test day
Both Red Bull Ampol Camaros tested on Tuesday
Ford rivals have slashed Triple Eight's leads in recent rounds
Jamie Whincup is hopeful Triple Eight can turn the tides heading to Tasmania following a "massive" test day, amid a surge in form by Ford rivals.
Feeney was desperate for a test day following Sydney, where Ford stars Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters and Matt Payne continued to eat into Triple Eight's championship leads.
After Darwin, Triple Eight was 920 points ahead of its closest rival, with Mostert 279 points behind Brown. In two rounds, Mostert has split Brown and Feeney and is 105 behind, with Triple Eight's teams' lead reduced to 802 points.
Such is the closing rate of the Fords, that Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton lamented holding off a test day, saying the team now can't afford to be conservative.
Both Red Bull Ampol Chevrolets rolled out at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday, with Will Brown and Broc Feeney joined by respective co-drivers Scott Pye and Whincup.
"Both cars ran extremely well, and we got through our test program," Whincup said.
"It was one of the best test days we’ve run operationally, everyone did a fantastic job, and we gathered a heap of information, which is now going to be up to us to sort through to try to make some gains.
"From my point of view, couldn’t be happier. I was happy to get a heap of laps for myself, which is nice because I haven’t done any this year."
Tuesday was also a big day for both co-drivers, with Feeney joking it "felt like a Jamie Whincup evaluation day," saying: "He got plenty of laps in, which was really good.
"We had a big test plan to get through today, we managed to get through pretty much everything we set out to. No major setbacks throughout the day, so we got to smash through our plan.
"It’s going to be a lot to look at in the next couple of weeks before we go to Tasmania but stoked the boys did such a good job because it was just such a big and long day.
“We’ve still got lots to look at and improve on, you don’t want the bad rounds, but it’s good to have a test day after one, just to try and learn some new things.”
Brown added: “It was a massive day. Probably the greatest number of laps I’ve ever done on a test day.
"We had a lot to work through. We’ve got a really fast car at Queensland Raceway, so it’s quite hard because some of the changes that we’re trying to figure out what might make the car faster at other tracks make it a little bit slower here.
"It was a lot to work through, trying to confirm what set-up changes we can put in our toolbox to know what changes we need at certain tracks and when we might be a little off the pace.”
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint on August 16-18. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
Live coverage can be found on Foxtel, with live streaming available on Kayo. Highlights will be shown on the Seven Network and 7plus. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.
