Mark ‘Dutto’ Dutton, Team Manager of the Red Bull Ampol Racing team, gives an in depth preview of the upcoming round at The Bend, kicking off the Enduro Cup part of the Supercars calendar.
What is the energy like in the team at the moment following race wins for #888 and #88 at Queensland Raceway to finish the Sprint Cup?
This will possibly sound a bit odd, however the energy hasn’t changed a lot. We are blessed with a team that is super hard working and focused, and we have no misconceptions that we are still on a journey of understanding the Ford Mustang to the level we want to. The energy and focus all year has been intense and that continues, but yes the race wins at Queensland Raceway and winning the Sprint Cup were a welcomed and an appreciated accomplishment for our long game approach.
What does the team to do list and turnaround look like ahead of The Bend and the Enduro Cup?
The turnaround between Queensland Raceway and The Bend has actually been fairly tight, with the category’s second test day and also a big ride day happening the days following the event. Both days saw the co-drivers do a heap of laps which was brilliant.
It did put a lot of pressure on the engine shop, and Kaz and the boys had to push hard to get through a heap of the Ford teams’ engines as quick as possible to get them to Supercars to sign off on in time for The Bend, as is the process, so huge thanks going out to both parties – these legends don’t get enough credit of the behind the scenes work that doesn’t make the media.
Preparing for Enduros has the workshop floor an absolute buzz, fuel towers coming out of storage, being serviced, calibrations checked. The car fuel capacity change for the Enduros and carries over into the Finals, the capacity actually reduces from 133L to 127L, whilst this might sound counter intuitive for Endurance racing having less capacity, it is built around driver stints etc. and is the same for everyone.
The drivers and co-drivers have been in the workshop, smashing out driver change practice, time on the sim and a few briefings, so far we are looking on track in these areas.
If that doesn’t sound busy enough, at the test day we discovered a brake pad issue, this was shared with Supercars and other teams, with an urgent meeting called so all teams could communicate any braking issues they have had with Supercars. All teams and Supercars collaborated and shared information really well in this meeting, and the size of the problem became crystal clear as critical with Supercars working with the pad manufacturer to both produce and fly out a special rush batch of pads.
Supercars have schedule an unprecedented session to allow teams to bed brakes, something that is usually done on specific rigs for consistency and to not something that costs the teams time on track. With such a tight turn around on these pads, the rig bedding couldn’t be done. This will be a hot topic all weekend, and could play a part in shaping the race.
What are the changes to The Bend circuit this year and how do they impact set up, strategy and racing?
Teams have raced on this circuit before, during Covid times, so we do have previous data, it does feel like a lifetime ago though.
If you compare the track layouts, last year when you got to Turn 6 you hooked a left then had four right hand corners in a row, this put a lot of energy in the outside tyres, so you really had to manage your left hand tyres. You then had a left right then a decent back straight where the drivers could catch their breath momentarily before another busy complex of turns.
This year’s layout when we get to Turn 6, you have a sharp right and into a busy sequence of turns. While the removal of the quadruple rights makes the life a little easier for the tyres, the removal of the back straight makes it busier for the drivers.
The shorter lap distance means we need to do more laps to cover the 500km race distance, this year it is 147 laps compared to 102 laps last year, the minimum driver stint is based on approximately 37% percentage of race distance, which this year is 54 laps.
Over the last few years, The Bend has not been a happy hunting ground for us, with the team making too many uncharacteristic mistakes, this is a big focus for us. We know we are better than that, and we will be working hard to have a clean weekend, and continue to build on the pace and momentum we saw at Queensland Raceway last time out.
*Quotes not for republishing