The hot weather is always a talking point when we race in Darwin, and a welcome change to Canberra’s winter!
The results weren’t what we hoped for, but we still banked important points towards making the Finals.Racing in the Northern Territory is really hot and this weekend was no different, as cabin temperatures soared into the high 40s and 50s throughout the event.
Our car felt really good on Friday as we ended up with 4th in Practice 1 and 20th in Practice 2 - we would have finished the second session higher, but we didn’t complete a green tyre run, so I wasn’t too stressed about the result.
We had a tough morning on Saturday, qualifying further down the order than we felt we were capable of. We finished 12th in Race 17 and 13th in Race 18. The races were full of action and multiple safety cars so I was glad to keep our #4 Supaglass Camaro in good shape.
On Sunday, we made the top 10 shootout for the fourth time this season, by qualifying 9th position. I felt confident that we had the speed to make it but it is never easy. Positions 2nd to 16th were separated by 16 hundredths (0.16) of a second! My shootout lap was reasonable apart from a big slide at turn 10, and we moved up to start Race 19 from 7th place.
As for the race itself, we rolled the dice by making an early pit stop, and we moved into an effective 3rd place on the road. But our tyre life wasn’t good enough, so we dropped back as the late stoppers made up ground. We held on for a 9th place finish to get another top 10.
We are 9th place in the points as we leave Darwin, but it is certainly heating up with a lot of drivers close to the top 10 cut off. Everyone will be doing their homework for Townsville, with every race becoming more and more important.
As always, thank you everyone for the support and we look forward to seeing you in Townsville!
