Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / Perth Super440 daily: Friday
Transcript
- Speedcafe Team: Hello and welcome to the Friday edition of the daily podcast from the Perth Super 440. My name is Andrew Van Loren and I'm joined by Speed Cafe's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomeyus. Stefan, we've just returned to our little Airbnb here in the very northern suburbs of Perth after an interesting day at Wannoroo. What did you make of it all? Well, a bit of an unusual day with a format supercars not on track until three o'clock local time. Yep. And then a pair of 25 minute Practice sessions with a small ⁓ gap in between them. We were talking last night about ⁓ Tony Quinn talking about the fact maybe Supercars needs to shake it up and even do one-day formats. ⁓ there's a lot of reasons why it's three days, but it felt like today they didn't really make the most of what Friday can be. Yeah. We've seen Friday races at the last couple of events, could have been a prime time back into the East Coast. Friday afternoon, spectacular. Yep, and Friday night footy in ⁓ in an AFL sense in Perth, so that's starts a little bit later on the East Coast than normal. So that probably could have worked, but that's not what we got. What we got was that pair of practice sessions. You're right, it was odd because I mean there were support categories that had had races by the time we actually got around to supercar's practice, which which yeah was a was a little bit strange. But ⁓ let's have a a chat about the practice sessions. It it really was more big practice session, but we'll sort of go through very quickly session by session because that first twenty five minutes, like ⁓ a one-two for premier racing. ⁓ you got Zach Bates in seventh. You could really see this is a tire sensitive circuit and you could really see the drivers that had an extra set of tires up their sleeve, couldn't you? Well most circuits a new tyres are going to beat an old tyre. So yeah, that's a point. Couldn't really take much at all out of the timesheets for that first session. Yeah, but you know, perhaps a little bit of a confidence boost for Declan Fraser, and we'll get onto his future a little bit later. ⁓ in the show. We'll talk about the second session now. ⁓ obviously ⁓ times are quicker, a lot more representative of where we think everyone is at with their pace. And ⁓ Matthew Payne, two point two tenths faster than Brock Feeney at the end of that session. ⁓ Brody Kastecki, another few hundredths back from Brock. I mean That sounds like an incredibly tight margin, but when we're talking about a fifty four and a half second lap, that was pretty fast from Matt Payne. He was about as happy as a bloke can be after practice, I thought. Like he genuinely wasn't hiding the fact that that was a a good day for him. They obviously rolled it out pretty well. They tuned it up a bit. He did a seven lap run in that ⁓ second session that was super consistent and then they bolted the green tire on and he was a chunk up on the field, so Yeah, he was he was a pretty happy boy. I guess the ominous thing is that we know that Grove Racing is so strong on strategy, and again, it's not the old wanneroo that used to just tear tires to bit, but there obviously is a f still an element of tire sensitivity here. So you sort of look at how you manage a rubber across the weekend and go, Well, they're quick out of the box. We know that they're good at executing races. You can actually really feel like he will head into tomorrow as a pretty strong favourite. Probably the wild card is the fact that the track condition will be quite different in qualifying tomorrow than it was really late in the day today. And also we're expecting some rain in the early morning, which at the very least will will change the condition. Brody Kastecki, who was third in that second session, was talking about the fact that it's a bit of a fifty fifty chance as to whether your changes on Friday night are gonna make the thing quicker or slower. Yep. ⁓ and he said it's a bit like opposite land this track at the best of times that ⁓ Yeah, sometimes what you intend doesn't always end up ⁓ how it is. But ⁓ again, it's those those fast forwards. Brock Beanie, second fastest, so triple eight back amongst it. He seemed reasonably happy as well just to be back at a press conference. It's not often a driver walks in the press conference and says, I'm happy to be here. It's usually ⁓ I mean obviously it's a sign they're they're having a good weekend when they are there, but it does often come across as a little bit of a chore and ⁓ he seemed pretty happy to be sitting in one of those chairs. Yeah, and then the Tickford boys fourth and fifth. I'd be pretty happy with that as well. Yeah. ⁓ Declan Fraser was sixth in that second session as well. ⁓ he did actually come over here and do a radical race at a club meeting a few ⁓ weeks ago and I was chatting to him there, and he was sort of like, Well, I'm not sure this was the useful exercise I thought it was gonna be because high tire grip, down force, paddle shift car, ⁓ he'd sort of realised that ⁓ Not a lot you can learn about driving a supercar around the place in a radical, but hey, maybe somehow it has worked for him. Yeah, premiere I think getting both cars in the ten in that second session was more of a statement than the first session. So Jaden was eighth in that second one. ⁓ and really leading the way for for Chevy that team. Yep. Two teammates and cars in the ten as well. But David Reynolds, obviously, you know, these these really traditional circuits, a man of his experience. should know how to get around here reasonably quickly. So, ⁓ you know, we know he can go quite well here. ⁓ so you think they'd be fairly given the fact there is this, you know, we know there still is this premium on rolling out of the truck well, you think they'd be reasonably happy with how the day played out. Yeah, well Dave made some comments today about the fact that ⁓ he was glad that this format is in play for this weekend, that you don't just have one practice session and have to go out and qualify straight away. ⁓ he referred to that format as like having a gun to your head. Yeah. ⁓ having to perform straight away. He also at the coat's function that we're at last night was giving his long talk about ⁓ how it's all about the car and ⁓ the setup and all of this and and Brody Kastecki interjected and said, Are you okay, mate? This feels like a massive trauma dump in front of these fans that don't need to hear this, which was all very amusing. But ⁓ he did get retired by Ryan Wood last night as well. He did. So ⁓ yeah. Positive start for them. Yeah, definitely. A less positive day for, well, almost everyone running a Toyota Supra. You know, we talked a bit about that being an unknown coming into this weekend. It's not a circuit the Supra had done laps of before. we've really seen Walkensh the Walk and Shore outfit excel here in the last couple of years. There was a couple of years before that where they really struggled here. But ⁓ yeah, I mean, ⁓ Ryan Wood, twentieth fastest, ⁓ Chaz Mostett 21st fastest. We know Chaz didn't run greens in the second session. Ryan Wood did do a very short stint on a set and I believe found some traffic or something along those lines, but there didn't seem to be too much positivity emanating out of the Walking Shore TWD garage this evening. Woody managed to find some traffic on his Outlap. We know that for sure. Another bit of contact with Kai Allen. Yep. What did you actually make of that contact? I don't really know. And it was a difficult Well we kinda had a ⁓ a difficult end of day because of the way the practice was so late and then it rolled into ⁓ the press conference straight away and then it rolled into the meeting rides, the the sponsor rides, and then it rolled into the driver's briefing. So we probably didn't quite get a chance to go and pick these guys. We did try and tackle Ryan Wood and he said go speak to Kai Allen first and then come back and talk to me and we didn't quite get a chance to get hold of Kai for ⁓ for all of those logistical reasons that I just mentioned. But Woody was never gonna talk to us about it even if we came back. He did give me an apple muffin though, which was delicious. So I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. That was ⁓ that was nice. so it was a weird thing. It it kind of I don't know, I was it was one of those odd things where you're like, why are these guys fighting over a a bit of tarmac on an outlap in a practice session? And as soon as you were trying to watch that, you got completely distracted by Jackson Walls firing through the middle of the S's on the outside of the circuit, ⁓ which feels like the inside because the left hander follows that corner, but is the outside, which is ⁓ I've watched a lot of racing there before, but I've never seen someone fire off into there. So it was all happening for those brief few moments there. It did look like he was watching some racing at that point and ⁓ lost a bit of where he was. But ⁓ Garth Tander on the broadcast did make mention of the fact that the nickel between Kai and Woody appears to have gone on a bit too long now, which Considering he is a what's his role? What's his title there again? some sort of advisor. Advisor, that's where I was going. ⁓ I'm sure that conversation's been had ⁓ this evening because of course they had an awkward moment in qualifying in Darwin where they made a bit of contact. Yeah. And then in the race in Townsville where ⁓ took Woody effectively out of that one. Yeah. So ⁓ yeah, it's a spicy little battle. Woody did tell us that he's in Zen mode. this weekend. So ⁓ maybe his radio antics are starting to catch up with him a little bit and ⁓ we'll find out during the races ⁓ when the TV's eavesdropping whether he's really in Zen mode or not. Yes, we ⁓ we definitely will find that out. I mean Kai Allen only seventeenth fastest in the second session today. I mean he's point seven nine seconds off the pace, remembering that his teammate already has over two tenths a margin over the rest. So we're talking about half a second to second. But that's just the nature of this circuit and how important it is to be right on top of things because you don't have to be far wide of it to be a long way down the order. And Kai had speared off at turn one. Yes. And ripped the seal out of it. They replaced it. But that was a bit of trauma that his session didn't need. And then he was trying to get back into the ⁓ garage and Will Brown had parked in the wrong spot. ⁓ that was bizarre as well. Obviously on autopilot thinking triple eight's still the top couple of garages. Yeah. ⁓ and ⁓ yeah, it ⁓ interrupted Kai's session even more. Yeah, we did see some other oddities. Two car well, sorry, one car spin on pit entry, that was Andre Heimgartner ended up was it Jack LeBrock that got into him? It was. And then Cooper Murray spun ⁓ Roland Gray in the same spot. That was a little that did seem like a little bit of poor ⁓ track position management, whether it was from the driver or from the team in terms of a car that was on a on a quick lap. I think Cooper had been purple in sector one. ⁓ and was not all that happy about coming across a ⁓ a shell forward so sort of lumbering on the racing line, trying to come into the pits there and ⁓ and quite entertainingly just fired straight into his rear bar to let him know that ⁓ I'm not stoked about this. Yeah, obviously Cooper could have avoided that, but he was finishing it his lap ⁓ no matter what. ⁓ and it's something we see here ⁓ a lot with the way that pit entry is. Yeah, it's bizarre. But it's also surprising whenever someone pits without using the indicator. Yeah. Because that's a pretty easy way to avoid those incidents. Well, that's effectively where the drivers the drivers were asked about it in the press conference and said, well, if you got your indicator on, it shouldn't really be an issue. It's always because I mean when they built the circuit, they also built a slip road sort of halfway down the hill. ⁓ which in some ways you think would that be better? But then that's a fast exit point from the racetrack. And if you're trying to execute a pass or something, it's kind of not usable As well, all of it's a lot messier than the old pit entry, which is just a peel wide of the of the that big curb at the last corner and and fire into the old pit lane on the outside of the circuit. So I guess when you do have those those ⁓ pit lanes on the inside of the circuit, it can be a little bit dicey there, particularly just the way that it is a a right hander at the end there. We did hear a funny anecdote about the fact that ⁓ Phil Keed was on the phone to Andre Heimgart. Yeah Talking about what setup changes they were gonna fire at the thing when he got it into the ⁓ pit box, not realizing that Andre was ⁓ looking in the opposite direction to the traffic at that point. ⁓ he probably didn't appreciate the ⁓ the chat. Yep. ⁓ let's finish up with a bit of news that came out today. I know you had a conversation with Roland Dane about Declan Fraser's future at that team. It's something that, you know, we reported on after Townsville. ⁓ it has been a question mark. It will be a question mark for the remainder of the season unless there's a massive uptick in form on that side of the garage. Promising day to day, that's great. But obviously it's about, you know, being in sixth, seventh, eighth position in qualifying sessions and races rather than in practice. but there was a report on Motor Racing 360 on Fox Sports during the week that Nick Percat had been made. I think it was called a a loose offer to replace Declan, but was kind of presented in fairly absolute terms that an offer was there and that it was about ⁓ him replacing Declan immediately, effectively, for the rest of the season. Nick turned it down on the basis that ⁓ obviously he would if he was back in a full time seat have to ⁓ step out of his triple eight cod Brock Feeney. So it was very explicitly said that Nick had turned it down for that reason. Yeah. So ⁓ you had a chat with Roland Dane about that and he had a fairly different sort of take on it. He genuinely had not heard about this this report until I mentioned it to him. ⁓ he's not a watcher of Motorsport 360. He did make that clear also, but that's probably a different ⁓ different discussion. And yeah, he was adamant that this approach to Nick did not happen. Yeah. he's was yeah absolutely shocked that ⁓ that was being reported. ⁓ and he he did say he had been in contact with Nick in the recent past, but it was only a text to tell him that there'd been a a little ⁓ alarm go off at the J N D factory, which is actually owned by Roland that Nick runs out of. And ⁓ Roland even showed me the text on his phone. I I was not that sceptical on it, but ⁓ he said, have a look at this and ⁓ there it was. I also had a brief text exchange with Nick about it, who he also seemed fairly amused by the whole notion. I mean, look. People sometimes are economical with the truth with us when it comes to these things. So, ⁓ there are times where, you know, there is you would say, Well, the smoke's there, there's probably some fire to it, but this I mean, how emphatic Roland was about it and how keen he was to actually go on the record with you about it and and clear it up does kind of you know, ⁓ my journalistic instincts are that there's not too much going on here. Yeah. And ⁓ he reiterated that there's no ⁓ no plan to step Declan out of the car during the season. Obviously we're only two rounds away from the enduro's. Yeah. Anyway, he'll have Nash Morris co driving with him. ⁓ but hopefully we see more out of Declan like we did today. Absolutely. Anything else you want to discuss before we ⁓ shut this down and have some dinner? Well, I reckon ⁓ for a day that was only a little bit of practice at the end, the practice did deliver Yep. Plenty of action. It did. So fair play on that. It did. It absolutely did. All right. We're gonna leave it there. We will be well, firstly, make sure you stay tuned to speakfa.com tomorrow, by which I mean Saturday, because we will have all of the action from Wannoroo Raceway. There's a fair bit going on, two qualifying sessions. ⁓ well four qualifying sessions, really, if you tally it all up, and ⁓ a couple of races tomorrow, which should be very interesting. We'll have everything. That's happening there covered on speakfa.com. And we'll be back in this podcast feed tomorrow evening with the Saturday edition of our daily podcast.