Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess takes a close look at the Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang in the Gen3 shakedown. Picture: Ross Gibb
Supercars and Team Blanchard Racing are now taking the lineage of what they learned from these historic Gen3 shocks.
The BRT became the first competitor to race a Gen3 race car, as opposed to one of the prototypes, on the track when it took on its own Winton Motor Raceway yesterday.
Between primary driver Todd Hazelwood and Co-Team Principal Tim Blanchard, the #3 Ford Mustang was driven approximately 60 times during the day on the 3.00km circuit, including four for moving purposes.
Hazelwood only stayed on track for over 30 laps in his longest run when the car stopped out of gear, although it is believed to have been at least a somewhat planned exercise to test exhaust and training.
A lip on the back of the Mustang’s bootlid flew off in the previous race, midway through Winton’s main straight, after which tape was seen applied to the front edge, while additional heat shielding was also inserted into the engine bay.
“[We learnt] Lots of little things, like you always have with a new car,” Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess told Speedcafe.com.
“I think it’s just fantastic to see the team built into existence. We lived with two prototypes for 16 months and the guys did a fantastic job here.
“The lot is always small; They have a large number of items, I have a list of items that we will share with the teams, and soon everyone will help with the building.
“To be honest, it’s just small stuff. The worst bit is when the food runs out; you’re like, ‘Shit, is it something big?’ No, just not enough food to sleep in it.
A piece of bootlid with a label that later broke off from the car. Picture: Ross Gibb
“It’s encouraging, but it’s early days, very early days. There’s no point sitting there thinking we’ve all done a great job because there will be problems.
“But, this is what happens when you build a new car; a total new car. It’s not just the current model of the car; It’s fresh out of the ground, so you think it’s encouraging on the first day, so it’s beautiful.
Blanchard told Speedcafe.com, “We’ll have all the data and we’ll have a look, but nothing major; a few little lazy things.
“We learned a lot of driving wise and we learned a lot of driving wise, because the vehicles are very different, and the way we think to drive is quite different from the stupid one.
BRT is likely to test again at some point next week, when some of the other southern based supercar teams are tentatively scheduled to develop their first gen3 race cars.
“Let’s sit you down first” [this] “Get up and have a little discussion about how we went today, what we learned, what we want to do next,” Blanchard explained.
“The intention is probably to come back next week, but we’ll just decide what’s the best strategic way to manage the workload from here to Newcastle.”
The next confirmed Gen3 shakedowns are those of the Ford homologation cult Shell V-Power Racing Team (Dick Johnson Racing) and the Chevrolet Squad Truck Assist Racing (Matt Stone Racing) at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday, February 7.