Jaxon Evans has hailed improvement of confidence and car development following the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, his ‘home’ event.
Evans is a long-time resident of the Gold Coast and continued his improvement as demonstrated by finishing 15th in Sunday’s 250km test.
“It’s been special,” he said. “I finished my schooling here and it’s a pretty special place in my life to come back here, being part of the Supercars field at this event is pretty surreal.
“It’s awesome to have my family able to roll out of their own bed to come down and watch. It’s such a good place to go racing, great vibe and probably one of the craziest tracks, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Although a short layout, its high usage of kerbs and tight configuration ensure the Gold Coast is a very unique circuit, with Evans making his first start at the venue since winning the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia title in 2018.
Starting at a disadvantage when a transmission fault forced Evans to miss the opening practice session, the SCT Motorsport team bounced back throughout the weekend.
Qualifying 24th for the opening race led Evans to make steady progress as he stayed clear of trouble to finish 17th..
Evans found half a second compared to the previous day’s qualifying session for Race 22 to start 21st and he again made significant moves to finish 15th at the end of 85 laps.
Reflecting on the weekend, Evans credited an improved confidence and driver-team understanding benefitting the development of the SCT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
“It was a bit of a slow start to our weekend following the transmission problem,” he explained.
“It was my first time in a Supercar here and I felt like practice was going to be crucial, so to miss the first session was a shame as it put us on the back foot.
“The recovery we made as a team, especially on my side of the garage with my engineer Julian, Lachie and my mechanics, we bounced back quite well, so we’re happy with where the car was all weekend. I felt confident in the races to move forward. Obviously missed the mark in qualifying on Sunday morning, which was frustrating, but we were able to move forward.
“The last street circuit we were at was Townsville and I really struggled with the tyre degradation there. It’s not as bad here on the Gold Coast, but it’s a pretty unforgiving place as it’s a concrete jungle, bouncing on the kerbs at the first and back chicanes. I feel like I made some big gains just in overall confidence.
“It’s been a step forward also in car development and balance between the working relationship communicating what I want in addition to getting that from the team has been a big leap.”
Both these areas ensure Evans heads to the final round of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship on the streets of Adelaide targeting a further move through the field following his progress on the Gold Coast.
“I think there’s a lot of things we can take away from Gold Coast and apply to Adelaide,” Evans adds.
“Overall confidence on a street circuit, just having to trust my ability knowing if I’m on the limit in qualifying or racing I’m capable of being inside the top 10 and I think it’s overall growth not only in qualifying speed, but car set-up, race pace, plus being able to move forward.
The Adelaide 500 completes the Repco Supercars Championship on November 14-17.
