The V8 Supercar wagon heads to North East Victoria this weekend to Winton Motor Raceway, just outside of Benalla.
The HSV Dealer Team duo of Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell go into the weekend prepared for a battle with the Ford teams, who have enjoyed considerable success in the last few rounds. While the Winton circuit is the home test track for the HSV Dealer Team and many other Melbourne based teams, Kelly and Dumbrell go into this weekend with no misconceptions of the strength of their rivals at this circuit.
“Winton is a track for us where the Fords are very strong and they have proven that in the past” Kelly said earlier this week.
“I think those guys are going to come down from Queensland and be very fast and obviously with FPR testing there also, they are going to be quick as well.”
According to Kelly, there is no ‘home-ground’ advantage, beyond an intimate knowledge of the track.
“It is not going to be a massive advantage for us, if anything it probably just allows us not to let those guys sneak away from us too much” said Kelly.
Dumbrell was more confident.
“This is our test track and I am quite confident going into the weekend” he said.
“Having completed three out of our four allocated test days this year and with a two day test coming up in about a month I am pretty confident we have a handle on the car. I am looking forward to some more strong results” an enthused Dumbrell said.
One thing that is certain to mix things up a bit at Winton is the unpredictable weather. The forecast this weekend is wet and cold with maximum temperatures not predicted to reach more than 11 degrees. A wet race track is sure to mix things up and a wary Kelly is prepared for whatever the weather throws at the team.
“The temperatures at Winton are going to be as low as we get throughout the year, which is exciting for me” Kelly said.
“I enjoy racing in the rain, although from a spectator point of view it is not ideal heading to a track in the pouring rain. But it always produces very good racing!”
“Our car at Sandown was really good in the wet, so if it the weather is going to be similar at Winton it could well and truly put us back in the running for the Championship in just one round.”
After a few disappointing results Kelly has slipped back to fourth in the Championship and is 382 points behind leader Mark Winterbottom but he is confident he can make up that gap.
“We are a fair way behind at the moment but definitely a bit of rain could throw a spanner in the works for the Championship position of the guys in front of us and could allow us to sneak back up on them before the endurance rounds.”
In the next garage, Dumbrell will also be looking to the weather in order to play a large part in the weekend result.
“With the weather looking pretty ordinary on the weekend, from the long range forecast, it should drive a few surprise results” he said.
“We haven’t done any testing there in the wet in 2008 but we have had a few wet races this year. Hopefully we can put in place some of the things we learnt from those races this weekend.”
The cool weather is also likely to cause havoc for the tyre condition.
“The temperature of the track and Winton itself is what we struggle to get a handle on. Making sure you are getting the temperature and pressure of the tyres up to the optimum level for your qualifying run is critical. And you only get three or four laps to do that so timing is important” Dumbrell maintained.”
Kelly also believes tyre temperature will play an important part in the end result.
“We have had the new tyre for two rounds now and they have both been hot rounds so it is going to be interesting to see what it does at Winton and how the tyre reacts to the colder temperature.”
The eighth round at Winton Motor Raceway starts on Friday with practice. It continues on Saturday with Qualifying and Race 1, while Races 2 and 3 are on Sunday.
