Just when we thought we had a good old fashioned, down-to-the-wire title fight on our hands last year, the drivers’ championship was swept out from underneath us in a grey cloud of points and heavy shower of expletives.
But you know the good thing about a new year? New resolutions! Ours is to go one better, and Mark ‘Dutto’ Dutton reckons this years’ double title is within reach.
With a few tweaks to SVG’s beast, and a brand new ZB Commodore built from scratch for J-Dub, 2019 – we’re coming for you!
“This will be a massive year for us. We’re going back to two cars which means that we can be really focused on that,” Dutto told supercars.com.
“Bathurst is obviously one of the major prizes. It’s always a toss-up which one you’d prefer, but we didn’t get the second-biggest, which is the drivers’ championship.
“To do that, it is about (having) consistency – more people in roles they know and refinement. Unfortunately our time in pit lane cost us during the year.”
Tybo (JDub’s number one mechanic) and his team have been working feverishly on JDub’s new squeeze, getting it ready for shakedown on February 7, before heading on to Phillip Island for Test Day on February 14.
It’s fair to say we’re well and truly in the swing of things at Triple Eight HQ – we’re talking long hours, little sleep and lots of car building.
Remember those ‘new year, new me’ resolutions we were banging on about? Well, ‘Dutto’ is feeling pumped up (not just because of his BodyScience protein bars) and is sure that this year is gonna be a good one.
“We have more cars running in the Development Series and other categories this year – so that will keep us busy.
“We’re feeling refreshed and pumped to go.”