Returning to The Bend this weekend I am feeling both a sense of excitement and also optimism on what we may be able to achieve.
As the site of my maiden Supercars race win there last year, it holds great memories for me and while I return with a new team, a new car, even a different manufacturer, I’m confident that if we can continue to put together the consistency we’ve been bringing we’re capable of a great results.
It’s one of those tracks where you just never know what the conditions are going to bring. We’re expecting there could be a possibility of wet weather across the weekend and it’s an incredibly difficult track to pass on - this makes qualifying so important.
Our set up is going to be key and the SuperSprint format of the weekend makes that even more so as we have less time to make adjustments and change things up if we find the car isn’t fast out of the blocks on Saturday. Car balance and tyre management is going to be crucial across the three races. Additionally we're back on the softs here and the circuit is the second longest of the Supercars calendar (only behind The Mountain).
The other thing we’re conscious of is the Ford dominance at The Bend - they've won 10 of the last 11 races here (with my win last year among that number!)
The BJR boys will be hoping we can change that! For myself, I wouldn't be unhappy to see some rain across the weekend - I do enjoy a wet track and last year's win came in the rain.
There's been a lot of chat in the weeks since Townsville about some of the guys taking it to SVG but for me, I'm just head down and bum up and hoping we can continue to build on the strong showings we've had.
Once again and on behalf of the whole team, thank you as always for all of your support. We couldn't do what we do without you.
André
