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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJamie Whincup was an unlikely participant in a Time Attack event at Queensland Raceway. <\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJamie Whincup was an unlikely participant in a Time Attack event at Queensland Raceway. <\/p>\n
The seven-time Supercars champion was spotted taking part in a Time Attack event at Queensland Raceway on Thursday in a brand new Gen3 Mustang.<\/p>\n
It is the car that was built for the wind tunnel testing in the United States, which means it hadn\u2019t completed any on-track running before its unusual appearance in Ipswich.<\/p>\n
The genesis for Whincup\u2019s Time Attack appearance was Triple Eight being tasked by Red Bull to prepare a car for a promotional activity in Melbourne this week in the lead-up to the Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
That is likely to be an F1 driver, either former or current, taking the wheel of the Mustang.<\/p>\n
The last-minute nature of the Red Bull request meant Triple Eight had to take whatever track time was available to shake down what is effectively its fourth Mustang \u2013 and that meant running at the Time Attack event on a shortened version of QR.<\/p>\n
The running still had to conform to the shakedown rules of a 60-kilometre limit and was overseen by a Supercars technical staff member.<\/p>\n
Click here<\/a> to watch the Adelaide Motorsport Festival live stream. Heading in? Click here<\/a> to purchase tickets.<\/p>\n With prep on the three Triple Eight race cars in full swing, the shakedown took place with just two Triple Eight staff on hand \u2013 Whincup and long-time mechanic Ty Freele.<\/p>\n Whincup even drove the team transporter from T8\u2019s Banyo workshop to Ipswich and back himself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was me and Ty, we got it out on track, she feels great and it\u2019s ready to go for next Wednesday,\u201d Whincup told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n \u201cI drove a truck and the car. \u2018Tybo\u2019 was the mechanic, data engineer, assistant, the whole lot. It was a two-man band to get this thing running.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally you would have eight people at the track on a day like that. But we were PR, we were catering, truck driver, race car driver. We were eight people between the two of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Now shaken down, the car will become T8\u2019s official spare Mustang once next week\u2019s promotional activity is done.<\/p>\n Having also taken part in Monday\u2019s ride day at Sydney Motorsport Park, Whincup now has first-hand experience of the Mustang package following T8\u2019s off-season switch from GM to Ford.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Queensland Raceway it was only the short track, so I didn\u2019t actually really get a feel for the car,\u201d said Whincup.<\/p>\n \u201cBut on the ride day, I was actually\u2026 I\u2019d heard a lot about the throttle response and the lack of driveability out of the Ford engine, but I\u2019m actually really impressed with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI expected it to be not that nice and it was a big area where we\u2019re going to have to work on, but it\u2019s actually much better than what has been perceived.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a dozen things we want to do for reliability inside the engine, some niceties, but the package is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n While happy to log some laps during the week, Whincup was adamant that he is comfortable with his decision to step away from co-driving and hand over the reins to Broc Feeney\u2019s new enduro partner Nick Percat.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to get behind the wheel every now and again, but my era is done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a young man\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n Whincup will next week be formally inducted into the Motorsport Australia Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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