CONFIDENCE HIGH FOLLOWING IRWIN RACING TEST

IRWIN Racing has completed its second test day of the V8 Supercar season ahead of this month’s Clipsal 500 on the streets of Adelaide.

Testing at Queensland Raceway, near Ipswich today, Alex Davison completed 130 laps in oppressively hot conditions as he and the team worked on some new development changes and the tweaking of previously used set-up options.

IRWIN Racing arrived at the track with confidence sky high having enjoyed a podium in the season opening race in Abu Dhabi last month, where Davison was runner-up to TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup. A strong run in the second race had Davison return home for the first Australian round of the series sitting second in the championship.

Following today’s successful test, Davison and his new engineer Daniel Kroehn, travel to the Clipsal 500 happy with the IRWIN Ford’s base set-up and satisfied that they will hit the track with a competitive race car.

The second event on the V8 Supercar calendar is the Clipsal 500, in Adelaide, March 17-20.

What IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison had to say:

“SBR (Stone Brothers Racing) had a very productive day, it was certainly one of the better days that we’ve had out at Queensland Raceway. Today was also one of the hottest, for about two or three hours after lunch it was hard to make sense of the data because the track was so hot and slippery. After it cooled down we did some good development work, realised we were on the right track in Abu Dhabi and that what we were doing would continue to suit the car going forward. I’m really happy with how good today’s test was, it’s maintained my confidence coming out of Abu Dhabi, were we were obviously really strong, the entire team was. The IRWIN Ford felt really good and I’m feeling really good going into the Clipsal 500 in a fortnight’s time.”

What IRWIN Racing engineer Daniel Kroehn had to say:

“IRWIN Racing had a pretty productive day; we worked through a lot of the set up changes that we found worked pretty well at Abu Dhabi and confirmed that they would be good at tracks here. A lot of things that we did over in the Middle East translated into some good changes today. We also learned a lot about other aspects of the car. We made the most of the conditions, it was an extremely hot and humid day today so we only had a couple of hours this morning and an hour or so this afternoon to set a lap time. The middle of the day was spent learning about aspects of the car that didn’t require outright speed. It’s been a productive day for IRWIN Racing; we have a lot of good things to take to Adelaide. Alex (Davison) and I think there are a few other things that we can sort to further improve the IRWIN Ford. We’re moving forward, the other guys found some direction on a few things, so overall as a team we’ll be able to improve our potential going into Adelaide.”