Next up the Bulls are heading to the land of the Quokka to take on the Perth SuperSprint! The newly renamed CARCO.com.au Raceway (formerly Wanneroo Raceway), is set to host races 7 through 9 of the 2023 Supercars Championship. It will also be the first round on the 2023 calendar to be sporting the Sprint race format, bringing a new challenge for the Gen3 cars.
Pre-Perth we had two major milestones achieved by both drivers. BFeen is now the youngest pole sitter in the ATCC/Supercars Championship history and SVG has now overtaken Lowndesy in total career podiums, now holding 170! This puts him in second for the most career podiums, with JDub holding a total of 237 podiums.
The whole team is excited to get to Perth (fun fact Perth is one of the most isolated cities on the globe!) for the first SuperSprint format of the year. Before they headed off we had a quick chat with both drivers and JDub to find out what their thoughts about the upcoming race are.
Broc Feeney – Car #88
“It’s a different style of racing, with three races over the weekend so I’m looking forward to. They’ve mixed it up this year with the practice on the Friday, with one 90-minute session. The whole race weekend is jam-packed busy, Sunday is especially flat out so it makes it exciting.
“I quite enjoyed racing the circuit last year, we we’re reasonably competitive. It’s a short, sharp track, and is super tight. Qualifying is especially important for this track, which can make the racing quite a lot of fun. We just need to make sure we qualify well so that we are in the mix and then we’ll race from there.
“It’s such a short lap, any little mistake is so costly. You have to really focus on executing the lap with minimal mistakes because the times are so close, a tenth can put you at the front or right at the back. We just need to make sure we qualify well so that we are in the mix and then we’ll race from there.”
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“The change of race format is something that I’m looking forward to. So far this year we’re yet to have a race weekend in the sprint format, with Perth being the first. We’ll get to see two, three and four tyre stops which will add hopefully make some great races. These short sprint races are what the year is mainly made up of, so I guess this is the first “normal” race weekend for us for the year. It will be interesting to see what it’s going to be like.
“The last corner of the circuit can be quite challenging; the breaking zone is what can make it difficult. You could be on what you think is a good qualifying lap, but then the most important part is that last corner. If you don’t get it right, it impacts the entire lap time.”
Jamie Whincup – Team Principal
“We pride ourselves on being a national competition, going all over the country, racing in all states except the ACT. It is great to be able to connect with the fanbase over in Western Australia, Perth is a great place, and we always feel welcomed there.
“So far this season we’ve seen these cars on a bumpy street circuit, on a fast-flowing hybrid circuit, so it will be good to be at a permanent circuit and first sprint race for the year to further evaluate the race-ability of our cars.
“We pride ourselves on making our cars fast at all circuits, working hard to find the best set up for each circuit. The set up for Perth will be completely different from how we rolled out at the Grand Prix, part of the reason for this is due to the circuit being very different to the other circuits on the calendar. It’s a small, flowing track and with a very different surface, which adds to the uniqueness of the track. It’s a fantastic track although challenging. The bowl corner at the back is one of the best corners we go to on any circuit.
“We didn’t quite get there at the Grand Prix but the whole team is ready to bring our A-Game to see if we can do a bit better in Perth.”
The team are in a strong position post Melbourne, sitting in second position for the teams championship.
SVG and BFeen are sitting in 3rd and 7th, respectively in the drivers championship. With the team hoping to keep closing the gap for both team and driver championships in Perth. Let’s go racing!
