IT was a short but sweet first taste of Gen3 Supercars for Kiwi international Jaxon Evans.
The Winton wet weather which yesterday caused Brad Jones Racing to postpone its pre-Sandown test did not particularly work in Evans’ favour.
Evans did cut some laps yesterday before the 11am cut-off to postpone, but was kept to limited mileage today due to another 11am deadline for a different reason altogether.
This time he had a flight to catch to travel back to the German city of Frankfurt.
The Porsche ace will compete in a 12-hour race this weekend as part of the Nürburgring Endurance Series, held on the famous Nordschleife layout.
“So, again back on the other side of the car which will be interesting, and probably the most challenging track in the world,” Evans told V8 Sleuth.
“But from my point of view it’s all good seat time and it’s nice to be in a car and be active, even though it’s not a Supercar, before we come back for Sandown.”
Evans will fly out of Frankfurt on Monday, headed for Down Under once more, in time for Sandown practice which starts on Friday, September 15.
The 26-year-old made his Repco Supercars Championship debut in the 2022 Bathurst 1000 and is back as Jack Smith’s co-driver again.
Having read plenty about Gen3 from the other side of the world, Evans had been eager to form his own impression.
“I didn’t really know what to expect coming into the test but I wasn’t, I guess, surprised,” he said.
“I quite enjoyed the challenge of learning a new car, which to me didn’t feel super different to what I drove last year, but purely because it has been 12 months between driving the Car of the Future and this Gen3 model.
“Obviously there’s little tendencies that you start to find and understand but all in all I think it was a good first impression and certainly a lot of things to work on from the driving side to make these ones go faster.
“I quite enjoyed my short amount of time in the car across yesterday and today.”
Having been caught up in the Lap 1 carnage last year at Bathurst, Evans is hoping for a better chance to show what he can do in 2023.
“The boys certainly didn’t fail to mention that pretty early on when I got back this time, so it’s those nice reminders that you try to act on and avoid,” he laughed.
“That was a little bit of the unexpected for me and maybe not reacting fast enough.
“It would be nice, if we keep our nose clean, to have a solid run at Sandown and be able to mix it up with the rest of the drivers in the field.”
