Garry Roger’s from Wilson Security Racing GRM writes his thoughts on the latest round of the 2016 V8 Supercars Championship – Queensland Raceway…..
They say that time flies when you are having fun. Well, I must be having a great time! This time last year I was surprised by the display that was put on of some of my old race cars (I didn’t even know that many existed) for my 70th birthday, and here we are again at Queensland Raceway. That was a great day, but we must move on and we all need to continue to work hard as we strive to do the very best that we can. Following this round we have five weeks off before the run home to the end of the season, including the all important Enduros.
This year has certainly been trying for all of us at GRM, but I have been incredibly proud of the attitude of all of my people and their single mindedness to keep pressing on and striving for success and the results that we have managed to achieve are certainly something that we can all be very proud of.
But, there is still a lot more to do and our intensity needs to step up another level if we want to be a contender for the Championship. Over the past couple of rounds we generally have not found the speed required to race at the front early in the weekend. But, as the weekends have unfolded and with the hard work of our mechanics and engineers we have managed to salvage what would be considered a reasonable result on the Sunday.
This weekend started with a session for the enduro drivers on Friday. Both Bieber (James Golding) and David Wall completed the half hour session and did a very good job finishing in 2nd and 6th. Sure, speed is important but the aim is to spend time in the car and for the drivers to familiarise themselves in readiness for the endurance races.
This session was particularly important for Bieber who has been racing in the Development series where the racing is all on the hard tyre. This year for the first time Sandown will be raced on the soft tyre as will the Gold Coast and only Bathurst on the hard Dunlop tyre. It’s important for Bieber to get a feel for the soft tyre and the extra grip and later braking that results in its use.
Moff and Scotty had 2×1 hour practice sessions later in the afternoon. As usual these sessions have a dual purpose. Obviously the main purpose is to find a car set up that the drivers are comfortable with and what provides the best out of the car, and the second is to “test” any development parts that we have been designing and making between race meetings.
If you want to be successful in this sport you can never be complacent and think that you have perfected everything. Somebody is always moving forward and if you don’t want to be left behind you also must continue to develop and test things. In some cases a lot of money and time can be spent thinking and doing things that you believe will improve the car only to find that you have taken a step back. This doesn’t mean that you give up on the idea, you may need to develop the change further and that is evolution in our sport.
At the end of Friday practice Scotty was 7th and Moff 11th.
Friday night and I was “knackered”. I believe that the day was the hottest July day in Ipswich for a very long time (and possibly ever), 30 deg. I apologise to all my fellow Victorians and other southern Australia residents about this ideal weather as they were all freezing down there!
Barry and I stopped in at the local Leagues Club (Brothers Leagues Club) for a parma and pot for dinner, I really enjoy seeing and talking to the locals in their environment. Coming from Victoria we don’t have Leagues Clubs, but the history, atmosphere and camaraderie of these places really makes me feel good.
Saturday morning and a short 15 minute practice session prior to qualifying for race 16 of the Championship. For today’s racing we are given two sets of Dunlop soft tyres and both sets are used during the 15 minute qualifying session and again in the race which requires at least one mandatory pit stop. Both Scotty and Moff were not 100% comfortable with the car’s performance and didn’t put together the best lap possible. It was tremendous to see Chris Pither top the times to achieve his very first pole position in Supercars. Moff was 13th and Scotty next to him in 14th.
Race 16 and Pither was first off the line, but was being pressured by Mostert (Prodrive), followed by the three Triple 8 cars. By the end of lap 1 Whincup led from Lowndes and Mostert 3rd. Moff was 11th after a solid start, but Scotty thinking the inside line into turn 1 was the safe bet was swamped on the outside as he was held up and lost several places after what looked like a very positive start to be in 15th.
Moff drove with great aggression and by lap 6 after passes on Courtney and Coulthard (Penske) he was positioned 8th right behind the pole sitter Pither. On lap 7 Krusty called Scotty in for the mandatory stop. This was a little earlier than what had been planned pre race, but Scott was being held up as he battled in the mid pack. The plan in these instances is that he rejoins the race and puts together a sequence of “quick” laps and when the group that were racing around him pit he passes them while they are stopped.
The risk is if you push too hard on the new tyres that they degrade too quickly and come the final laps of the race you are a sitting duck. In this instance Scotty didn’t see any benefit and finished 15th. Moff pitted on lap 17 and following all of the stops found himself in 9th and that is where he finished.
Out front the 888 cars dominated with the hard charging Van Gisbergen passing both Lowndes and Whincup in the closing laps to win. Again, it illustrates the importance of qualifying particularly for these 120 km. (39 laps) races. If you qualify mid field you are likely to race and finish mid field.
The positive out of the race today was both Moff and Scotty felt they had a good race car and their race speed was certainly comparable to all bar the runaway 888 cars. It’s quite obvious but we need to again unlock that qualifying potential that particularly Scott has shown over the past 3 seasons.
Sunday and another beautiful sunny Queensland day. Thank goodness we have a sponsor ride day on Monday so as I can delay heading back to the wind and rain in Melbourne.
Qualifying for today’s 200km (65 laps) race is over 20 minutes and we have three sets of soft tyres per car to use for qualifying and racing. The sequence of events in these sessions is the car goes out with “old” tyres on to warm up the brakes and re-enters pit lane and the guys put the first set of green tyres on.
The driver then does completes an out lap and one or two flying laps then returns to pit lane. This sequence is repeated three times during the 20 minute session. At most tracks the fastest laps are done at the very end of the session as more rubber is laid on the track and the drivers push harder and harder.
Sometimes though if the air and hence track temperature is rising rapidly that the quickest time can occur earlier in the session. This was the case here with the quickest run being the second one. Triple 8 continued their dominance of yesterday locking out the front row with Whincup and Lowndes. Scotty improved from yesterday to be 10th and Moff 13th.
Again the times were incredibly close and so as you can visualise this if Moff had have been 1/10th of a second quicker he would have been 6th. On track that is only 4.4 metres, so between 6th and 13th you need to jam 8 cars in 4.4 metres, nowhere else do we see such close competition.
Over the years at the Supercar meetings we often have fly overs and other activities. Of course the fighter jets feature at many events and still frighten the living daylights out of me, but here in Ipswich where the Amberley RAAF base is located we had the pleasure of seeing a large fighter jet refuelling jumbo gracefully fly overhead. The size of this plane and the way it appeared to slowly travel along pit lane at what appeared to be no faster than walking pace was a sight to behold.
Anyway we were here to race and not look up at the sky, although I often look up and say my prayers during a race!
Race 17, as usual the Sunday race required a minimum of two stops over which 120 litres of fuel must be put into the car. Flowing at approx. 4 litres per second this equates to a standing time of approx. 30 seconds over two stops. The plan was to stop Scotty somewhere between lap 15 and 20 and this would depend on what others around him did. As much as you want to run your own race it’s important to react to others so as to eliminate the risk of being undercut.
The amount of fuel put into his car at the first stop would be between 15 and 20 seconds (60-80 litres) and this would depend on where we needed to slip him back into the race. The engineers are constantly monitoring the time gaps and if you can get an extra second or so of fuel in without losing a position then you do it, but if an extra second means you are going to exit pit lane in the middle of a pack of cars you will short fuel. It all looks easy on television but decisions like this can have a hug e influence on the end result.
On the other hand the plan with Moff was to run him longer and put the majority of the required 120 litre fuel drop in at his first stop and as much as you would lose track position early it isn’t such a concern when you are racing mid pack as you should pick up those positions later in the race when your stop should be considerably shorter than others. The plan was to also run him longer through the middle stint and put his final set of tyres on later than most which would hopefully give him the opportunity to pick up spots as others lost pace.
Off the line Lowndesy got the jump on Whincup who was chasing his 100th career win and Scotty drove aggressively yet smartly to force his way to 8th by the second lap. Moff again showed that he is one of the best off the line and was in the top 10 by lap 4. On lap 9 with Coulthard pressing hard from behind and giving Moff a little nudge as they headed onto the main straight Moff didn’t give an inch and fought hard with the Penske car down the main straight.
In the meantime both Cameron Waters (Prodrive) and Todd Kelly (Nissan) snuck in behind Coulthard and Moff lost 3 spots. It’s easy in retrospect to suggest that maybe he should have given the spot to Coulthard and dropped in behind him, but he chose to “drag race” him down the straight without considering the others coming from behind.
On lap 12 the engineers reacted to the Nissan garage who called Caruso in who was two spots in front of Scotty at the time and called #33 in. With the professionalism of the teams we often take it for granted the ability of the guys during these stops. With brake temps. In excess of 800 deg. and noise and excitement everywhere the wheel changes and suspension adjustments happen in a matter of seconds.
It then feels like a “lifetime” as the fuel goes in, but after 12 seconds he was on his way following Caruso down pit lane. Moff was the final car to pit for the first stop on lap 21 and as planned he took on a large amount of fuel (26 seconds) which put him back in the pack. The stint was going to be a long one for him and Moff would have to drive with controlled aggression so as to not ruin his tyres. Scotty spent the second stint in 6th behind Chris Pither. Like Moff and most of the field the middle stint is all about driving to a time and making your tyres last.
In retrospect our approach with Scott may have been a little conservative as Pither was slightly slower and at certain parts of the track and was compromising the s peed of #33. If Scott had have fought early in the stint and got past Pither without too much tyre degradation he could have kept in touch with the leading group.
The race upfront continued between Lowndes and Whincup. Following the final stops Caruso (Nissan) had done a great job to pass Winterbottom for third. Scotty was in 7th but a hard charging Mostert was coming from behind on the freshest of tyres amongst the lead group having stopped on lap 42, 7 laps after Scott. Mostert made the most of his fresh rubber to finish third behind Lowndes and Whincup and Scotty paced himself well to finish 6th just ahead of Tim Slade (BJR). Moff took his final stop on lap 43 and made the most of his tyres and raced from 16th to 11th in the final 20 laps.
Overall a satisfactory result without being exceptional. The positives are our race pace, reliability and team work are all very good, yet our qualifying performances have been subpar over the past 3 rounds. We all have work to do and that is what we will be doing between now and Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek).
I look forward to seeing our members and fans at Eastern Creek on the 26th of August.
Regards
Garry
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