RACE RECAP: TOUGH END PHILLIP ISLAND

Scott Pye was 15th, while James Courtney was classified in 24th after multiple tyre failures on Sunday at Phillip Island, race 10 of the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. It was a disappointing way to finish a weekend, after flashes of performance gains.

Unfortunately, a vibration in Scott’s car became apparent mid-race, which meant he was left to fight off those behind for the remainder.

Additionally, JC had made contact with Hazelwood on lap 1, damaging the front right corner of his 22 car. For that, he received a 15-second penalty, and ultimately the day went from bad to worse a few laps later. Two tyre failures on that damaged front right corner ruined the rest of his day, as he went multiple laps down, and was forced to nurse the car home to salvage any points possible.

The team will now conduct a full and thorough investigation to properly understand the cause, and  if there was a clear link between the damage and failures.

Car 22 made definite qualifying gains overnight, making it into the final stage of the three-part qualifying session before setting the ninth best time, but the pace wasn’t able to be shown in the 200km race.

We will continue to work on key areas identified to ensure greater performance and consistency, but will also take learnings from the positives such as Scott being the fastest Holden in qualifying yesterday, and the way JC’s car was improved overnight.

We’ve got two weeks back at the workshop now before we head to Perth for the night races, which will be an event to watch.

Thanks as always for your support.

RYAN WALKINSHAW

“We’re all pretty disappointed, I don’t think we got the results we thought we could here.

“We saw some positives across the weekend, particularly with Scott being the fastest Holden in qualifying yesterday, and JC was making a lot of ground yesterday before the tyre failure, and found good direction overnight.

“There was damage done on lap 1 of the race for JC, which potentially may have resulted in the tyre failures, but we will have to go back, digest it, evaluate it, and ensure we fully understand what happened.
“For Scott today, that vibration and the issues he faced didn’t make his life easy but he did well to hold off those behind.

“Thanks to everyone for their support, I can assure you everyone is working their arses off to continue taking us back to where we want to be.”