The Bend 500 – Practice 1, 2 & 3 Results
Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #1
Practice 1 – 18th (1:51.4439)
Practice 2 – 11th (1:51.3467)
Practice 3 – 1st (1:48.9957)
“So the last time we were here was 2023, which is actually the weekend that I announced that I was moving across to Red Bull Ampol Racing, so that’s a cool little memory from a couple of years ago.”
“But it was actually, to be honest, it was a fantastic Friday. Even though it was quite tough in the first practice and then again in Scott’s session we were just continually working on the car, trying to make it better. But straight when we got that new set of greens on the car it just came alive and we were able to put together a really good lap.”
“So stoked with where it ended up, but outside of that, I’ve got to try and understand why we’re off on the old rubber even though we’re on with the new ones. You know, we’ve done a lot of stops changing all four throughout the year where other people do just two per stop, so sometimes they have a bit better rubber when it comes to practice one and two.”
“Good to know how fast the car is when it grips up. Hopefully, that last session and lap translates across to tomorrow with the sessions and qualifying. Hopefully, we can be up the front.”
“It feels good being back in the car. It’s been a big day, and great to see Will finish on top in the car which gives us confidence going into tomorrow.”
“Overall I’m really happy that we were finally on an event tire because I think there’s a big discrepancy between everything everyone was on there to start the week. So it was a tricky day, but I’m glad we stuck to our guns and just backed ourselves today to get the result in the end.”
“It is only Friday, it’s only practice, but I think the great thing is we’re on the rubber for the weekend now so that should translate from today to tomorrow and Sunday pace wise. There were a lot of question marks around them coming in but now we’re all on them and we’re seeing how everyone performs.”
“But I think we just back ourselves in now. Credit to the boys and Andrew and Will who did a good job and now hopefully we can qualify well tomorrow, start at the pointy end come Sunday. But comfort wise and everything from the co driver’s perspective, I feel good. I’m looking forward to Sunday and before then I’ve got another co driver session tomorrow too, so looking forward to that.”
Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88
Practice 1 – 12th (1:51.0469)
Practice 2 – 1st (1:50.5875)
Practice 3 – 2nd (1:49.3167)
“Having been here last week racing GT I felt on it straight away, my first lap we went P1 by a bit of a margin so I felt like it was certainly an advantage to be here last weekend, I felt on top of it.”
“The sessions, it sounds like a lot on paper, but I did two flying laps in the first session and then Jamie went in and it rained so it felt quite interrupted the first session and then you sit out for the second co-driver session. So it was good to do some more laps in practice three and even then you still had the safety car procedure. What I’m saying is a lot happened today. It’s been action packed for probably not too many laps done.”
“The good thing is we’ve rolled out, we’re competitive, overall in the end we’re second and a one two for the team which is great… but still plenty to work on.”
“I still feel like we’ve got a fair bit to work on but it’s good that the speed’s there, even though it doesn’t feel the best, it’s good to know that we’ve sort of got the speed at the moment. So look, I have no doubt everyone’s going to make a big jump overnight. We just need to make sure we can do that as well.”
“Today it was good to get more laps in, haven’t been in the car since the test day, but the more I’m behind the wheel the more comfortable I’m becoming.”
“I’m still very, very… you know, it’s not second nature. It’s still a really strange thing being back in it. In your head you sort of know the limits, so to speak, you can’t get there just because you don’t have the muscle memory because you haven’t done it for so long. It’s a little bit frustrating. So I’m just trying to learn to just roll with it, try to enjoy it, not get frustrated by it, by not being as much of a perfectionist as what the main drivers are.”
“But at the same time, I’m working with Broc on the car. We’ve probably made the job a little harder for Marty today than we should have. We’re both sort of saying different things and I can tell he’s in the middle of us both. So I think tomorrow’s focus is Broc and I working together on our feedback back to the team so they can help us get the most out of the car.”
“To have both Red Bull Ampol Racing cars at the top of the sheets in that final session is great for sure. Everyone showed their hand today and both cars were more than competitive, you know, car #1 was exceptional. That was under lap record. It’s unbelievable, really, where we were still under lap record pace but not as fast as car #1. Very, very happy with todays results for both cars.”
