The championship-leading Toll HSV Dealer Team kept its powder dry by keeping its new tyres in the pit garage in practice for Round 4 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series on its “home” track at Winton.
Garth Tander and Rick Kelly were the fastest drivers on old tyres during the rain-marred session, with Tander even finishing among the top three fastest cars without the advantage of “green” tyres used by others at the top of the timesheets.
The team decided there would be a bigger advantage in keeping the new tyres up its sleeve rather than use up the special grip they afford in Friday’s changeable conditions for no real gain.
Tander set his fastest time – 1 min. 24.34 sec – on his 12th lap of a possible 40 laps, which put him at the top of the times before a passing shower disrupted the session.
Kelly was second fastest at that stage, on a best lap of 1 min. 24.58 sec on the 3km circuit – the team’s home test track.
Once the track was wet, the team switched to wet weather tyres to test its traditional wet-weather set up – something that has been rarely needed in the drought.
But with the possibility of more showers on Saturday in the wake of the big drought-breaking rains across north-eastern Victoria this week, the team decided to use the opportunity to reacquaint itself with wet running and part-dry track conditions.
Once the track dried, the team resisted the temptation to fit “green” slicks as many other teams were doing, instead re-fitting the same slicks they had used earlier in the session to test race set ups.
In the end, only two drivers – Paul Dumbrell and Jason Richards – were able to better Tander’s original time, while Kelly finished up fifth fastest, with Mark Skaife sandwiched between him and Tander.
Both Toll HSV Dealer Team drivers are confident they can improve their times significantly in Saturday qualifying once the new tyres come out, provided conditions are dry.
Kelly and Tander are seeking to continue their winning streak that so far has stretched to seven races this year. They are also looking to win their third round on the trot, after Tander’s blitz in Perth and Kelly’s win most recently in New Zealand.
#16 Garth Tander (3rd fastest, 1:24.34): “The car was very good straight away. We just had to tune it to the conditions. When it rained in the middle of the session, “Techo” (engineer Mathew Nilsson) and I decided we weren’t going to be bothered putting on a second set of tyres, as the circuit was changing and the weather was changing. We will save them for the future. To end up still third on one set of tyres – used tyres – compared with guys using two or three sets of tyres, was pretty good. ”
#1 Rick Kelly (5th fastest, 1:24.58): “We are pretty happy. We needed to make some improvements here from last year, which I think we probably have. The middle sector for us was a strong point, and it is normally not, so that is good. As far as practice went, we found a few gains that we think are going to help with a track that is reasonably low grip. Heading into tomorrow with new tyres, we should look pretty good. ”
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