Ever improving V8 Supercar outfit Brad Jones Racing surprised the field with the fastest practice session in front of a bumper crowd at the Sucrogen Townsville 400 in North Queensland today.
With Kiwi speedster Jason Richards in the TeamBOC Commodore, the Albury based outfit matched it with the big guns on day one to grab the fastest lap of the day ahead of TeamVodafone’s reigning Champion Jamie Whincup and Toll HRTs Garth Tander.
There were three New Zealanders in the top 10 fastest today with Steven Richards (FPR Falcon) seventh fastest in a welcome return to form and Fabian Coulthard (Bundaburg Red Racing Holden) ninth fastest.
Greg Murphy (Castrol Edge Racing) was 19th while in-form Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Falcon0 was strangely off the pace in 24th.
It continued to sound the emergence of the team as a real winning contender this weekend and beyond. Richards confessed to a complete change of approach as a catalyst towards today’s outcome.
“We have totally changed our philosophy,” Richards said. “We could do one quick lap (last year) and our cars have possibly been setup more to cater for that.
“Instead we are now concentrating on consistency across the whole race.. It has been a big shift and it’s certainly paying dividends.
“We want that as a consistent result for the rest of the year. We don’t want to be mucking around in the twenties and the teens. We want to be banging out top five results and eventually we will win a race.
“There’s still more to come from the car yet. I’m much more confident and we will sleep a little bit easier tonight. Once we put the green tyres on the car really lifted its’ game to the point I didn’t get the most out of it.”
Whincup played down a perceived feud with Championship leader James Courtney (eighth today) after a recent series of comments in the press.
“There are no issues, he is doing a good job and we are trying to catch him,” Whincup said.
“We are not even halfway yet. I’m not even sure who’s going to be battling for 1-2 in the Championship in Sydney. You can’t just focus on one guy because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The Townsville track has changed in characteristic since new surfaces similar to the bitumen mix used on the Abu Dhabi track has been laid since the inaugural event last year.
Both Tander and Whincup experimented with the new differentials in the opening practice session. Interestingly Tander’s assessment of the Detroit Locker diff is unchanged from his Darwin diagnosis and believes it is not where the category should be heading.
Cameron McConville, brought back from retirement to replace New Zealand’s Daniel Gaunt in the Gulf Western Oil Commodore, had a horrifying moment in practice three.
He suffered brake failure going into turn 11 with the Holden suffering substantial front-end damage which could not be fixed in time for the final practice run.
There is qualifying, Top-10 Shootout and first race of 200km tomorrow.
