Jaxon Evans is set to embark on a remarkable month-long racing program, kicking off at the Darwin Triple Crown this weekend.
The 27-year-old New Zealander is a man in demand around the world, with his ride in the SCT-backed Chevrolet Supercar at Darwin followed by races at Mount Fuji in Japan, the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium and a return to Australia for the Townsville 500.
His twin international drives will both be with Porsche squad Phantom Global Racing – a continuation of his role as a factory Porsche driver.
At Mt Fuji for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia, he will race alongside Sun Jingzu before contesting the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Spa in an all-Pro driving line-up featuring Joel Eriksson and Thomas Preining.
Evans’ month of motorsport adds to an already busy season of racing, including his drive in Fanatec GT Australia with Arise Racing, where less than two weeks ago, he scored a pole position and two podium race results.
“It’s certainly going to be a really big month for me,” he said.
“I’ve been doing lots of racing already in all different types of cars, so this is a pretty cool continuation of the busy schedule I’ve already had.
“I’ve had success at Darwin before in the Porsche Carrera Cup, and I love the track and the event. It will be great to race a Supercar there. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
“From there, I go to Mount Fuji – a great track with a stunning backdrop. Then straight from Tokyo to Brussels for the 24 Hours of Spa, and it’s really cool to be competing there in the 100th running of that race. It’s one that any race driver around the world wants to win.
“I’ll finally finish the trip off with Townsville, but with all that’s ahead, it’s hard to even think about that one yet.
“One thing for sure is that I’ll have plenty of frequent flyer miles under my belt by the time I finish it all off!”
Evans’s first stop is Darwin, and although he raced a Supercar at the Hidden Valley circuit, he has enjoyed success there in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia. Evans secured his maiden race and round win at the venue in 2017, and he also added another victory in his title-winning season a year later.
“Celebrating the indigenous culture makes me pumped with all the liveries, and I think the SCT Motorsport version is pretty special in that respect,” Evans added regarding this weekend’s Indigenous round.
“Hopefully, it is as fast as it looks, and we can have a good weekend.
“I’ve been there twice before in the Carrera Cup, and it was actually the place where I took my first race win in addition to the round in 2017. A lot has changed since then, not in terms of the track, but more so the event in terms of the indigenous celebration, which will be exciting to experience.”
Fast-forward to this season, Evans and the SCT Motorsport crew will be targeting an improved qualifying performance at Hidden Valley.
In debriefing the Perth round, Evans highlighted this as an area to improve, and it formed part of the testing program the team undertook at Queensland Raceway recently.
“To get that Rookie Test under my belt was a big commitment from not only the SCT Motorsport side of things, but Brad Jones Racing as well.
“We had the whole engineering squad there and a couple of car crews to make sure we got through all the changes we wanted.
“We felt like we learnt a little bit, certainly some stuff to take away from. It’s always hard to compare until you’re on track, but I think all-in-all it was positive and we benefitted when we had one prior to Taupo, so hopefully it’s the same in Darwin.
“There are many areas where we want to improve and do better. Qualifying is definitely our downfall at the moment and that’s what I will be aiming to improve in Darwin.
“It’s not just the car balance or set-up when it comes to that, it’s a little bit of driver and car synchronisation. It’s something I’m getting better at personally, but collectively as an entire package from driver, car and team we’re trying to extract more performance, which is the key take away.
“You qualify up the front, you stay there. It’s as simple as that. You don’t want to make the job any harder by qualifying down the back and that’s been the story so far this season. Hopefully we can fine-tune our qualifying car and put it all together to be at the back end of the top 10 to race there.”
Evans will take part in the first Track to Town at the Darwin event on Thursday, June 13, before a rapid run of sessions starting on Friday, June 14, to kick off the latest round of the Repco Supercars Championship.
