JDub and his new beast hit the Lakeside track yesterday for chassis 43’s shakedown ahead of Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP).
In true Taylor Swift fashion, they well and truly shook the shiny new chassis off, which performed seamlessly even in the wet.
“The shakedown was excellent,” said JDub.
“We rolled out and did a full systems check, and there was only some minor little electrical issues that we fixed very quickly. By the end of the day, Alana was running very smoothly.”
Yep, you heard it right; JDub’s leading lady has been named “Alana”. Following on from Jen, this one has got some big shoes to fill when it comes to being JDub’s main squeeze.
“Obviously, you hope that every new car is better than the last, at the end of the day there’s really nothing wrong with Jen either, she did a great job for us. A new car is a great feeling; it’s somewhat a placebo which you take. Everything is nice and brand new.”
When comparing Alana to his previous charging bull, JDub said there were no big alterations, just areas of improvement.
“There are no major changes to the car at all. There has been a heap of refining, but nothing worth mentioning. It was mainly about refining what we had in Jen that bit further really, whether that turns into lap time or not, we aren’t sure, but every car you build always goes one better, so let’s see what we can do.”
Restrictions at shakedowns mean that cars can only complete a maximum of 60km, but that didn’t stop JDub from getting Alana purring perfectly.
“I didn’t get to really bust out some laps in anger due to restrictions around the Lakeside Track, so we never did any setup changes or really went to 100 per cent. It was more doing a systems check and making sure I felt 100 percent in the car. We were able to tick all those boxes and finish the day very happy.”
The Lakeside track was a new venue for the Red Bull Racing Australia crew, being our first time to the track for business. But with an exercise such as a shakedown, the track matters none says JDub.
“We could have done it around the streets of Banyo to be honest, but we can’t legally, so we needed a track. The Lakeside track is great, but when you are travelling around at snail’s pace the track really doesn’t come into play.”
JDub currently sits on top of the leader board ahead of SMP, where he hopes to claim his 100th VASC win.
On our return from Sydney it’s all eyes towards the enduro prize as we head to Queensland Raceway for our pre-enduro test, September 8.