Ready to Race: Caltex Young Stars Complete Final Bathurst Practice
THE CALTEX Young Stars are ready to tackle Australia’s most famous race following the completion of practice for the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000.
The team and drivers Matt Chahda and Jaylyn Robotham spent Saturday in full-race preparation mode, with two one-hour sessions giving both drivers plenty of seat time in a range of conditions.
Robotham spent all of practice five behind the wheel and in wet conditions banked a 2m28.7183s best to place the #118 Commodore 23rd outright, the best result of any session of the weekend so far.
The pair then split the duties in the final session, the final practice focussing on race prep and practice driver changes, refuelling and brake changes that will feature throughout the race on Sunday.
The Caltex Young Stars head into tomorrow’s 161-lap Great Race in positive shape following six highly successful practice sessions and a solid qualifying performance.
More than 500 kilometres have been banked by both drivers with strong reliability, consistency and lots of experience proven heading into the race on Sunday.
The Repco Bathurst 1000 starts at 11:15am local time on Sunday, 9 October and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506, Kayo and the Seven Network.
RESULTS:
Practice 5: 23rd, 2m28.7183s (18 laps)
Practice 6: 28th, 2m08.1829s (21 laps)
MATT CHAHDA
“Today went all right, it was good just to get some actual hot brake change practice for the crew and sift through any issues we’re going to have there.
“The car is good, we don’t have too much to work on there, I know the weather conditions are going to be the question mark, but it’s the same for everyone.
“Originally, the team suggested I would take the start, but that’s really down to the engineer, that’s his call, but we’re good with whoever is in the car for the first stint.”
JAYLYN ROBOTHAM
“Today went well, this morning I went out in the wet which was good, it was good to get some practice in. The second session was a little bit damp, so I went out on wets, but then we swapped drivers and Matt did the rest of the session.
“After doing the wet session I am much more confident if it is a wet race. It would have been bad if I didn’t get any practice and it was wet in the race, so it’s good to get that ticked off and have that experience in both conditions.
“The car is really good. It’s set up well for a race car, as we didn’t try too much to tune it for qualifying, so we’ve rolled out with a solid race set-up, so it should be nice for the race tomorrow.”
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