TRIPLE Eight Race Engineering has turned its first Gen3 laps – but only after a near all-nighter.
The Banyo squad worked through until 1am local time (2am AEDT) this morning to ensure it had both of its Camaros, plus one for customer PremiAir Racing, fully ready to hit the track.
Sure enough, the #97 Chevrolet of Shane van Gisbergen rolled out of the Queensland Raceway pitlane shortly after 8:30am AEST for a brief run, gradually building up speed.
Broc Feeney then took the #88 sister car out for an initial stint.
Both Triple Eight cars are running a Red Bull test livery, which will remain for their next test on February 14, before switching to its 2023 race livery ahead of the Sydney Motorsport Park all-in on February 22.
The third of the Supercars being shaken down today, PremiAir’s #31 for James Golding, is yet to leave the pits at the time of publication.
It is dressed in plain black for now, save for PremiAir Racing stickers down the sides.
The Arundel team’s second car for recruit Tim Slade is due to debut next Tuesday.
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton spoke to the challenges of hitting the track, with Round 1 at Newcastle fast approaching.
“This is the most difficult car build I’ve been involved in during all my time at Triple Eight,” Dutton told V8 Sleuth on Sunday.
“We’ve built more cars in-house before, but what we haven’t done is during car build, supplying as many components to as many teams.
“It’s been funny. Every cloud has a silver lining and the silver lining is all these teams are working better than ever together. It’s pretty cool to be honest.
“Once we’re on the track we’re all fighting for everything and we’re going hard, but off the track everyone has been working together in much more harmony.
“I think that’s pretty cool to see.
“We’ve been buying more stuff off people than we ever have and selling more than we ever have as well, manufacturing. It’s good.”
PremiAir’s #31 will become the eighth Gen3 race car to hit the track.
Also at QR today is the newly formed Gomersall Motorsport, with its Super2 and Super3 cars for Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall, respectively.
