Walkinshaw TWG celebrates a 1-3 finish at The Bend. Image: Supplied
Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s 1-3 finish was an emphatic way to shake-off lingering doubts over the reliability of the 2UR-GSE V8 engine.
The Bend marked the second event following the rollout of a ‘B-spec’ aimed at ridding the engine of its valvetrain weakness.
A long-awaited camshaft upgrade was introduced at Ipswich following extensive work between Walkinshaw and its UK-based engine partner Swindon Powertrains.
Walkinshaw TWG team principal and Toyota project architect Carl Faux revealed to Speedcafe post-race that the Ryan Wood/Jaxon Evans entry would not have finished had it still had an A-spec aboard.
“It’s great for Toyota, great for the team here,” he said of the result.
“All the hard work that’s been put in over the last, I’m not going to say over the last year, it’s more than that culminating here.
“The increased reliability of the valvetrain showed [on Sunday].
“Woody had a double downshift into Turn 1, a gearbox issue during the race, which pinged the engine.
“We know that A-spec wouldn’t have survived that, but B-spec has, so we’re happy with that, and he could carry on.”
The B-spec motors were fitted to the cars on the Thursday of the Ipswich event following a rush to have them completed.
An engine failure for Chaz Mostert on the Sunday of the Queensland round raised alarm bells, but turned out to be an unrelated problem that manifested itself as a bearing failure.
The Supras do battle at The Bend. Image: Supplied
According to Faux, there were no changes to the specifications of the engine following QR, and the four B-specs in service completed the whole of the race weekend at The Bend.
Brad Jones Racing’s Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys entry had remained on the A-spec by choice in South Australia.
The successful run at The Bend means there’s currently no plan to do mid-weekend engine swaps at Bathurst.
“We inspected all the B-specs on Saturday night and undertook the NDT (non-destructive testing) we do on them, and we were happy that they were able to continue,” he said.
“We’ll do that inspection again [at Bathurst]. If there’s anything that makes us think that we need to do preventative or precautionary, then we will.”
There were no precautions being taken in the wake of Sunday’s victory, with Chaz Mostert’s request to perform a post-race burnout approved by the boss himself – much to the driver’s surprise.
“The engine department will be upset with me because I said he could do a burnout…” Faux smiled.
Faux is proud of the revised package but acknowledges there’s no guarantees at Bathurst.
“We had four engine failures across two cars when we were at Bathurst last time,” he said. “If we do better than that this year, I’ll be happy.”
Both of the team’s Ford Mustangs were taken out of Great Race contention by engine trouble last year – Mostert stopping on track after dropping a cylinder and Wood forced to pit with a failed crank sensor.
The Bathurst 1000 will be Faux’s last event with the team, which he is electing to depart following a nine-year stint that has included two Great Race victories and the 2025 Supercars title.
Sunday’s result locked reigning champion Mostert into the Finals Series, while Wood is all-but assured of his place, pending a freakish set of circumstances playing out at Bathurst.