AN extra 24 hours has been added onto Team 18’s wait until it finally makes its Gen3 debut.
Every new car bar Team 18’s two Chevrolet Camaros have now completed shakedowns.
The Victorian squad was due to run today at Winton Motor Raceway before quietly delaying the landmark occasion, with a steering wheel issue affecting both cars causing them to postpone the outing until Friday February 17.
“We’ve got a config issue on one of the steering wheels so there’s no point running half a day when it’s not right,” team manager Bruin Beasley confirmed to V8 Sleuth.
“We have got Supercars here now working through it and then once it’s all good we’ll run tomorrow.
“We have pushed the guys pretty hard as well so it’s a good chance to take a breath, slow down, get it right, fix that and then have a full day tomorrow.
“And the reality is, it’s only a shakedown so we’ll get everything right and then we go to SMP (Sydney Motorsport Park for a compulsory test on February 22) and then we have got a Winton test before the (Newcastle) round anyway.”
That was a point emphasised by Beasley.
“For us it’s all about Round 1 when we get there, not the Winton shakedown day,” he reiterated.
With the timeline tightening in the lead-up to SMP, tomorrow morning is shaping as a long-awaited moment of relief.
“It has been a hard job but we have taken our time to make sure we are doing everything properly and nice and as current as we can,” added Beasley, who indicated the shakedowns would not be pushed back any further.
“It’s been a benefit to not run out first because all these other people are learning stuff that we’re getting the benefit of, so we’ll just concentrate on our program.”
Dick Johnson Racing, Matt Stone Racing and PremiAir Racing all shook down their second Gen3 Supercars today at Queensland Raceway.
