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Live Diary: The Bend

SUNDAY AT THE BEND

Jamie Whincup – Car #1
Qualifying –  First (Fastest Time: 1:48.6498)
Race  2 –  First
Championship – Third (2,416 points)

“We had a quick car and I did a lot of work, but all of these things work together to get us three fast cars. My car was fantastic, today my crew did a good job and it was great to get away with a win for the first weekend at Tailem Bend. It’s just hard work, I know it sounds cliché, but at the end of the day we did our homework behind the scenes to make sure that we came here strong and then worked really hard throughout the weekend. The cars are so similar, they have the same power, it just comes down to what you do with it and our crew did a very good job today. You just have to keep getting better and better, there’s no limit in this game. I’ve had some tough starts recently, a few shockers – I haven’t had a bad start in two years, but recently I’ve had some poor ones, so it’s great to have two solid ones this weekend.”

OTR SuperSprint event 11 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Tailem Bend, South Australia. Australia. August 26th 2018

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying –  Second (Fastest Time: 1:49.0515)
Race 2 –  Second
Championship –  First (2,778 points)

“The team has been working so hard in the last few rounds to try and improve things and a lot of work went into this weekend with the hard tyre. Today we sort of detuned my car a little bit, we had the pace in qualifying to put it together. In the race, I didn’t get a great start, but my car was awesome in the first stint. We had to pit early to avoid the potential of a stack and also we thought we’d played the safe option and not run a risk for no reason. The cloud cover made it a lot more grippy than yesterday, although the race was still the same, it still had one racing line. If you missed the apex by half a car width, you’d lose so much tyre. It was a hard day just trying to stay focused the whole time. Overall, it’s an awesome result. To have the one-two is a pretty dominant performance by the team and it’s awesome to be part of it. It also means we’re now the most-winning team in history which is a huge effort.” 

OTR SuperSprint event 11 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Tailem Bend, South Australia. Australia. August 26th 2018

1320 We’re prepping for race two, head to our Twitter page to live updates throughout the race.

1215 So, want to watch a day in the life of J-Dub’s number one mechanic? Head to our Instagram page to watch it in our story.

1130 We’re feeling some epic deja vu in qualifying… J-Dub takes pole position for the second day in a row, SVG comes behind in P2. Not bad team.

0800 Class photo time, say cheese!

2018 Supercars Championship round 11. The Bend SuperSprint, The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia. Thursday 23rd August to Sunday 26th August 2018. World Copyright: Daniel Kalisz Photographer Ref: Digital Image DSC_4393.NEF

SATURDAY AT THE BEND

Jamie Whincup – Car #1
Practice 3 –  Ninth (Fastest Time: 1:50.3034)
Qualifying –  First (Fastest Time: 1:50.1371)
Race 1 –  Fourth

“Qualifying was fantastic for us, it was a real battle of trying to stay on the track with the crazy conditions, which is what motorsport is all about. I was rapt to get through qualifying on pole. In the race, I got a great start but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough pace which was the start of the snowball effect. To be honest, I feel disappointed to not get a podium today, I thought we fought hard and we deserved it. To be six seconds ahead of third and then come out P8 after the stops, I thought I was going to come out second, if not third. It’s disappointing we didn’t get a podium, but that’s motorsport, fingers crossed we can keep moving forward and have two good cars tomorrow. Everyone is going to move up tonight, so we have got to make sure we take a step forward. The closer you are to the top, the less of a step you can make to move forward, but regardless, we must take a step forward. Our focus tomorrow will be to try to improve the race car to make it even faster. The track was challenging, it’s a challenging circuit. The dirt is all part of the challenge but there’s no excuses. We had an unlucky day, you make your own luck in this game and we just weren’t quick enough.”

2018 Supercars Championship round 11. The Bend SuperSprint, The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend, South Australia, Australia. Thursday 23rd August to Sunday 26th August 2018. World Copyright: Daniel Kalisz Photographer Ref: Digital Image DSC_4158.NEF

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Practice 3 –  Sixth (Fastest Time: 1:49.9947)
Qualifying –  Second (Fastest Time: 1:50.8140)
Race 1 –  First

“It was a good race today, we got an okay start and slotted into second. We had really good speed at the start and we were able to pass Jamie. We started to get away but then the safety car came out, so we pitted. A great pit stop by the crew so we were able to keep the lead which was awesome. It is a shame that Jamie had to double stack, we both had quick cars although mine seemed a little bit better at the start. Rick (Kelly) was fast and put some pressure on, but we managed to keep the gap to the end. Qualifying was very tough for everyone and we all had the same issues, so much dirt on the track which made it very tough, but hopefully tomorrow is better. There have been a couple of rounds on the hard tyre where we’ve been quite a bit slower – Grand Prix and Phillip Island – and the hard tyre on those sorts of tracks has been our weakness and that has been a bit of a worry this weekend. Although the last few rounds have been pretty good for us, it’s great to see how fast our cars have come. It could all change tomorrow, we just need to keep accumulating, keep having good days, make no mistakes and stay focused.” 

OTR SuperSprint event 11 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Tailem Bend, South Australia. Australia. August 24th to 26th 2018

1600 We’re racing in T-20mins, find all the live updates on Twitter #RedBullHolden

1345 We have done the Red Bull Holden 1-2 in the first ever Qualifying session, J-Dub P1 and SVG P2.

OTR SuperSprint event 11 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Tailem Bend, South Australia. Australia. August 24th to 26th 2018

0900 We’re profiling J-Dub’s #1 mechanic – Ty “Tybo” Freele – on our Instagram page today, head there to check it out.

0730 Starting the day strong with some fresh pit stop practice.

FRIDAY AT THE BEND

Jamie Whincup – Car #1
Practice 1 –  17th (Fastest Time: 1:51.8922)
Practice 2 –  Second (Fastest Time: 1:49.3231)

“We’ve done so much work in simulation before this weekend so it was good to finally get in the car and see what it’s really like. It’s like a billiard table, really flat, smooth and flowing. The track is quite dusty, which is a challenge for everyone and no one is near the limit, or maximizing their car. It’s refreshing. We’re at the front of the field at the moment but we’re not reading too much into it and we’ve got plenty of work to do. The last corner is really high speed with a bit of concrete at the end of the corner. It’s long too, it’s like a Bathurst lap, a whole minute forty and you can be three-quarters of your way around the track and think you’re good, but you still have a fair way to go and that last corner is the hardest one. We’re just going to focus on qualifying tomorrow. We all love street tracks but it’s so important to have really good permanent circuits for driver training, car launches and for all of the young kids in Adelaide to be able to come out here and have the perfect opportunity.”

OTR SuperSprint event 11 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Tailem Bend, South Australia. Australia. August 24th to 26th 2018

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Practice 1 – Fourth (Fastest Time: 1:50.6727)
Practice 2 –  First (Fastest Time: 1:48.7499)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“The track is very different to when I was here a few months ago, obviously it’s a different car. The first practice today was quite tough, it’s very slippery and the wind was quite a challenge. For the first year at this track, they’ve made it the hard tyre and its just too hard, we have no grip and it’s a massive challenge. We don’t race on them very often – the last time was at Phillip Island and we weren’t that good so we’ve had to change a few things to make it better. At any long track you’re better off focusing on the track as a whole, we were struggling on one corner early on in practice and we focused on that and it just put us off for the rest of the corners. Tomorrow, qualifying will be very important – if we can get out the front and get some clean air, it’ll make the car so much better. We need to have a good practice in the morning and try and stay on top of it.” 

1500 Practice two about to start. Follow our Twitter page for all race updates.

1330 We’re off to the Red Bull rooftop party! Best seats in the house by a mile. Buy your tickets here.

1130 The first practice session is complete, J-Dub thinks “it’s really cool!”

0800 We’ve arrived at The Bend Motorsport Park for the first ever The Bend SuperSprint, and boy are we impressed! Absolute top notch facilities.