Darwin - Day Two
The heat came on both on and off the track, with Darwin delivering another sunny 32-degree day and the Saturday competition torching the tarmac.
We started in 8th (Cam) and 15th (Thomas) with a long game strategy to play out. From the start we maintained track position before the pit stops starting cycling through and shuffling forward. When Thomas pitted car #55 taking four tyres, he returned to the track and a few laps later was impeded in turn five, before the car became airborne and sustaining damage forcing another pit stop and losing significant time to the full field. This pushed Thomas back out in second last where he finished.
Cam’s run saw him take the compulsory pit stop in P2 deep into the race, taking four tyres and looking to make a run to the finish. He passed a number of cars, before being hit with a 5sec penalty which ended up knocking his finish from 6th to 10th position. The outcome of the day has us 4th in the teams 2 points in arrears of third and Cam staying in 4th and Thomas 10th in the driver’s Championship.
CEO Simon Brookhouse reflected on the day,
“Put simply it was a tough day at the office. The cars had pace as we showed in both practice sessions, but for various reasons, we were unable to convert that into maximum points. Obviously, Car 55 was involved in a racing incident causing damage and loss of a lap which here in Darwin you can’t recover. Thomas was driving well but was in what appeared to be the right place at the wrong time! Cam drove an aggressive race and the race strategy appeared to be working as he climbed to 5th on the track. Unfortunately, he was given a 5 second penalty for what appeared to be a racing incident like many others that have gone unpunished over the season so far. Given I am new to the sport, I am still coming to terms with the rules of racing and how penalties are applied, but like all sports officiating all our fans, sponsors, members and team want is consistency. The one great thing for us is that we can reset overnight and start again tomorrow”.
The team will review today’s outcomes, work hard overnight to find further car speed before Sunday’s qualifying.
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