The Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro of Anton de Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth. Image: InSyde Media
Drivers complained of poor braking performance from early in the first session, leaving teams to switch between pads, bleed hydraulic systems and even adjust pedal positions.
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton told Speedcafe that the culprit appeared to be the latest batches of pads.
“We’re still trying to work it out,” Dutton told Speedcafe following Practice 2.
“There’s two different batches of pads that you can race on, so we’re trying to ascertain; is there a difference, what is that difference, and what is the feel of those?
“Your braking can affect the handling of the car, so you’ve got to be mindful that you’re setting the car up with representative pads.
“It’s another element because you now have pads that feel different than in the past.
“Right now all teams are dealing with the fact that it’s a bit of a variable, so that further complicates for everyone setting up these race cars.”
Brake pads were a major talking point across the last two Supercars events.
A spate of issues with pads falling apart at Queensland Raceway led to an emergency effort to get new batches manufactured ahead of The Bend.
Teams were able to get through that event on a mix of existing stock and new arrivals, despite not all of the fresh stock making it to the South Australian venue in time.
There were no reports of the pads falling today, rather just producing a lower level of performance.
“It just feels different to what you expect,” Team 18 driver Anton De Pasquale told Speedcafe.
“Then you go through your process of bleeding, trying a couple different sets, but ultimately it just feels different to what you’re used to and you’re lacking a little bit of retardation.
“It shifts your bias and you start tuning the car around it. The two sets I ran were the same, just not as expected, I guess.”
Dutton said the brake situation is an extra variable in the lead-up to Sunday’s Great Race.
“You’d rather not have to deal with this. Of course, everyone in pit lane would rather not have to,” he added.
“But the category scrambled pretty hard between Tailem Bend and now to get the options we have.
“We wanted to test them now, half of you wants to save them until the race, don’t use them up, but no point getting there and having a surprise.
“So we were using predominantly race allocation today.”