Another Round of Challenges on Day 2 in Perth

Day 2 of Round 4 of the Repco Supercars Championship brought both excitement and challenges for Penrite Racing as they navigated the short but demanding Perth circuit.

Practice began at 9:15 am, setting the stage for the day’s events. Matt Payne and Richie Stanaway put in solid efforts, with Payne finishing P8 and Stanaway securing P16. It was a promising start, but greater trials lay ahead.

Qualifying posed its own difficulties, especially for Stanaway, who narrowly missed out on a Q3 berth, finishing P11 by a mere 0.0061s. However, Payne performed well, securing P8 in the final run despite jumping out of the car at P5 on a 55.0639s.

Race 9 started with excitement but quickly turned tragic. After just three laps, Stanaway’s car experienced a fuel pump issue, resulting in a collision with the outside wall. Despite sustaining considerable damage to the front and rear, Stanaway and the Penrite Racing team persevered, rejoining the race nine laps behind. Ultimately, Stanaway finished P24, resulting in a drop from fourth to seventh in the driver championship standings. Meanwhile, Payne maintained a top-ten position for the majority of the race and clinched P8.

Stanaway reflected, “Unfortunately, it was a tough day at the office for Car 26. We had a fuel pump failure on the way to the grid, and we weren’t able to rectify it. Consequently, we were falling down the order, and it misfired at a bad time while exiting the last corner with a car right behind me, turning me into the wall and damaging the car quite a bit. Fortunately, we managed to get the car circulating again to secure some points, but it was a really tough day for us. So, we have to keep our spirits high overnight and try to bounce back tomorrow.”

“It was a really difficult day for us. Richie had an engine misfire right off the start, which turned out to be a fuel pump failure. It was running on the reserve pump, but the system wasn’t catching it fast enough, causing the car to lose power out of corners. Unfortunately, he got tagged from behind and slammed into the wall pretty hard. So, the car came back in, and we basically repaired it just so we could race around and gather a few points. Everything that’s damaged should be replaceable with new parts, so it shouldn’t be a major issue, but there’s a lot of work to be done to get it looking as good as we want it,” commented David Cauchi, Team Principal.

The day’s challenges saw Penrite Racing drop to third place in the team championships, a setback they aim to overcome. With three sessions scheduled for tomorrow – Practice 2, Qualifying, and Race 10 – the team is focused on regrouping and returning stronger.

The track schedule for tomorrow is as follows: Practice 3 at 9:40 am AWST/11:40 am AEST, followed by knockout Boost Mobile Qualifying at 12:00 pm AWST/2:00 pm AEST. The second 55-lap race of the weekend, Race 10, will commence at 3:45 pm AWST/5:45 pm AEST.

Stay tuned for more action-packed racing as Penrite Racing strives for victory in the Repco Supercars Championship.