Woah.
The final race of the enduro season did not disappoint, and it delivered a whole heap of milestones for us here at Red Bull Racing Australia.
We scored our 100th Pole Position (now 101), secured the Supercars Teams Championship, took out both 300km races AND brought home the Enduro Cup. So, ya know, all in a day’s work really.
The weekend will certainly go down in the history books as one of our best, and with only two rounds left until the season wraps, there is still plenty of hard work ahead.
So what better time to sit with the boss man that after a hugely successful weekend… and whilst he’s in a good mood.
The Supercars Teams Championship, 100 poles, wins at both GC600 races and an enduro cup – was it a big weekend, to say the least?
It was a MASSIVE weekend. It was a high achievement coming off a difficult couple of weeks. This showed the depth and commitment of the Team. One hundred and one poles, by the way, as well as winning the PIRTEK Enduro Cup for the third time in four years are things to be very proud of as they mark the consistency of our performance over a long period of time, as do the eight Teams Championships including seven in a row.
In your mind – what was the standout achievement from the weekend and why?
A clean sweep of race wins is always huge at the GC600 because it’s such a tough event with so many variables, but this time it was achieved after a trying period and so it made these wins all the more special.
Both #88 and #97 were in a race of their own on Sunday, with both cars showing immense pace. Was the formula just right on the weekend?
The engineers did a superb job of adapting the cars to the soft tyre off the back of great pace at Bathurst on the hard tyre. So they collectively hit the sweet spot pretty much from the roll out on Friday, which is always difficult with the minimal practise time we were given.
The question on everyone’s lips – will Alex be back next year?
That’s the plan. He didn’t put a mark on the car throughout the three enduro events and did a great job. He defied the expectations of the armchair experts and delivered in spades, as we knew he would. He is a first class operator in the car and out. It’s his call at this stage though, we’re waiting to hear his plans for 2017 and we’ll go from there. Nothing is confirmed yet.
What about that Dumbrell bloke, will we give him another crack?
As usual, it’s up to him. But I think he’s keen. He did a better job this year than last, so there’s no need for him to retire just yet.
It’s been said the Championship fight is between SVG and JW, and the numbers prove that as well. A fortunate position to be in or a tricky one?
It should be the aim of every team to be in this position. There’s plenty of water still to flow under the bridge and time will tell as to whether it’s a tricky position or not!
The Red Bull Racing Australia crew cross the ditch and head to the land of the long white cloud November 4th – 6th.
