All attention has turned to Sandown after an action-packed S5000 test day at Phillip Island today.
Thirteen of the brand-new cars rolled out this morning for a full day session, with some of the cars having never seen a race track before.
The drivers, including experienced open wheel drivers like Formula 1 legend Rubens Barrichello and Indy 500 racer Matthew Brabham, were in awe of the new V8-powered cars. Brabham said that it “takes some balls” to drive them, while Barrichello, 47, claimed that the cars made him “feel like a young man” again.
“It’s been a nice day – learning the team, learning the track and the car,” said Barrichello. “It’s wonderful to drive the car and this race track, and the car is so powerful so it’s nice to drive.
The day was hampered by two incidents for Barton Mawer and Tom Alexander – both occurring early in the day’s running. Mawer made heavy contact with the wall opposite pit straight. The car was sent back to the Garry Rogers Motorsport workshop where it is being assessed ahead of Sandown. Alexander’s incident was light contact with the tyre barrier and he will be on the track this weekend.
No official lap times were recorded, although the pace setters were John Martin (AGI Sport) and Tim Macrow (MTEC Motorsport), both reporting lap times in the low 1 minute 24 second bracket.
GRM Supercars driver James Golding was also on hand at the test. He drove one of the spare cars at the test.
Teams will unload their cars at Sandown tomorrow with practice kicking off on Friday, September 20, followed by qualifying and racing on Saturday and Sunday.
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