Worn tyres dictate practice pace for DJR Team Penske at Queensland Raceway
July 31, 2015
The Western Star Trucks Falcon of Scott Pye has featured in every session during practice for the Coates Hire Ipswich Supersprint today at Queensland Raceway. The introduction of a ‘co-driver only’ session saw Marcos Ambrose return to driving duties with a strong run in the opening 30 minute session.
Marcos was comfortably in the Top 10 for the most of the session, finally posting a P8 result. Handing the car over to Scott Pye, the good run continued as Scott recorded a P4 in the first of the full one hour sessions.
Running on well-worn Dunlop Hard and Soft Compound tyres, Pye was punching out good lap times and set the day up well for the final practice run. All teams are allocated a new set of tyres for the final Friday Practice but Pye did not put a lap in on the new rubber, running wide at Turn 6 on the very last lap and not recording a time. His P19 from an earlier run was not representative of the speed the Western Star Trucks Falcon FG X had shown all day.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday with two sessions to set the grid for Races 18 & 19 of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship.
SCOTT PYE – #17 WESTERN STAR TRUCKS FALCON FG X
"The Western Star Trucks Ford was really good all day, but it is difficult to know just what the changes are really doing to the car because the tyres are just so old. We battled on through the two hours of practice and backed ourselves with each small change. We were mindful not to make too many drastic changes to the set up as it kept coming back to the tyre, so we did achieve a lot today.
"All in all it was a very pleasing performance from the whole team. Whenever I was talking to the boys to improve the car, I was keeping in the back of my mind that the tyres were playing a huge role in our performance today.
"At the very end of the day we did not get a chance to run the ‘green’ tyre. I did not complete a lap as I made a mistake at Turn 6 on my first lap, so headed for the pits. On the old, old tyres we did run, we were in the Top 10 so it points well to the weekend. I think we are probably around the bottom of the Top 5 overall so no complaints coming out of here at the moment!”
MARCOS AMBROSE – #17 WESTERN STAR TRUCKS FALCON FG X
"It feels really good. Like everybody we were running around on pretty used tyres, but it felt good, nice and consistent.
"My concern always seems to be brakes with these cars, I just can’t get a feel for it. As I got going in that session I got better and better under brakes, but the tyres got worse and worse, so it kind of neutralised our gains.
"Overall I was pretty happy with the session."