SCT Motorsport’s Jaxon Evans has enjoyed a busy few weeks since the last Repco Supercars Championship round at Albert Park, and he believes this will be an advantage ahead of the category’s first trip to Taupo International Motorsport Park.
A large contingent of friends and family will be supporting Evans at the event as he enters the round, having already completed laps there post-Grand Prix in what was his first experience of Taupo.
“I’ve never raced at Taupo, so I thought it would be a good idea to at least learn how the circuit goes and the characteristics of it prior to arriving there for our single 90-minute practice session,” said Evans.
“It was an eye-opener for sure, it was pretty interesting and it’s a fun circuit, but definitely I learnt a lot while finding it beneficial.
“The biggest thing is the surface changes. There are some very high grip parts of the circuit that have been resurfaced and also a lot of the track in its original state, so that side of things will be pretty interesting in managing tyre degradation. There are also some interesting corners on how you approach and the appropriate lines, so I think we’ll definitely have our work cut out for us.
“It’s very tight, there probably isn’t a lot of outright passing opportunities, but at the same time I think the tyre deg will come into providing more of a racy feel especially in strategy. I think there will be an emphasis in qualifying and at least for the first portion of the race track position will be key.”
This kicked off a busy period during which Evans enjoyed a run in an Arise Racing GT Ferrari at Phillip Island, completed laps of Sepang in a Porsche, and added more miles in the SCT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Queensland Raceway, completing his first Supercars Rookie Test.
In addition, Evans returned to the Ferrari to contest the opening round of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia at Phillip Island, finishing second in Race 1 alongside Elliott Schutte in the 296 GT3’s Australian debut. This provides a great lead into the event at Taupo.
The Rookie Test proved extremely beneficial for both Evans and the team as he continued to get up to speed during the early stages of his Supercars career.
“It definitely felt like I made some gains,” he said.
“It was super beneficial not only for myself but also for the team. We’ve been struggling, so it was good to get some testing done. It was awesome to get some test items over the line and either cross them off or give them the tick of approval before we get to a race weekend, so we’re not learning on the fly at an event.
“In terms of driving it was definitely beneficial for me. I got the opportunity to fine-tune and hone in on some of the skills required to drive a Supercars fast. Little technique things are pretty hard to fix up on the fly.
“I was very happy with how the day went and it was a massive effort from everyone at Brad Jones Racing to make sure we had a big crew on site to ensure we could get all the changes we wanted done. It’s then a big turnaround to get the car ready to fly to New Zealand.
Arriving at Taupo is a level playing field given the lack of data and knowledge throughout the field, but also potential high tyre degradation may add further challenges.
Taupo will host two 200km races at 60 laps each on the Dunlop soft tyre compound that is sure to mix up the strategy and, possibly, the results.
“We’re going to continue to improve and I’m confident even without the rookie test it would have been a step forward, but now having done that running it will be better. Fingers crossed I can perform in front of the home crowd and make everyone proud.
“The Kiwis are super passionate and I know they’ve been crying out loud to get Supercars back. With the way Taupo is sold out, the Kiwi fans are 100 per cent behind the event, and I think it will be a great success.“
The ITM Taupo Super400 is set to take place this weekend.
