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Progress Made By Protecnica Racing At Phillip Island |
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Friday, 08 December 2006 |
 Ahead of this weekend’s final round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Phillip Island Raceway in Victoria, Protecnica Racing and Chris Alajajian took to the circuit for a pair of productive practice sessions.
Keen to end their initial foray into V8 Supercar competition on a
strong note, the team opted for a steady approach for the two 35-minute
sessions. Track time in the opening session focused on familiarisation
with the 4.4km circuit overlooking Bass Strait, with Alajajian
recording a time of 1:37.9976 to secure 16th place aboard the Jack
Hillermans Smash / Elf Lubricants Commodore.
“In Practice 1, we really just wanted to learn the track in this car,”
surmised Alajajian. “I’ve driven here a couple of times before in F3
and Production Cars, but it’s very different in this car.
“The track is a lot like Bathurst and even the Surfers Paradise Indy
track in some aspects. The exit you get out of each corner is very
important because it determines your speed for quite a long way
afterwards, instead of just a short run to the next corner. It’s very
flowing, and it’s very important to maintain momentum across a whole
lap.”
Temperatures at the circuit increased between sessions, ensuring lap
times in Practice 2 were well down on the earlier benchmarks. Alajajian
improved to be 14th fastest in the 35-car field.
“The track was a lot slower in Practice 2 than the first session,” said
Alajajian, 20. “It was hotter and there was a bit of oil around so most
people were about a second slower than they were in the morning.
“We were about half a second slower, but comparing the two sessions we
took a second out of the margin to first place. A lot of that is down
to some setup changes we made between sessions which worked well.
“We’ve improved today, and we know there are more improvements to be
made. We’re always learning, there’s always something for me to learn.
We’ll look through our data from today, make some more changes tonight
and see how we go."
Times from the day were enough to ensure Alajajian will be among the
Top 50% group in qualifying tomorrow morning, ahead of Race 1 at
2:10pm. Race 2 will take place on Sunday.
“It was a good day,” said Protecnica Racing team owner Scott Anderson.
“The tyres we used today weren’t in particularly good condition, but we
managed to make a lot of progress with the car and we achieved our main
target of getting into the Top 50% group for qualifying, which is
important.
“We’ll keep tweaking the car as the weekend continues and look to keep moving up the order.”
Protecnica Racing thanks the ongoing support of Jack Hillermans Smash, Elf Lubricants and Nudie Juices.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 December 2006 )
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