The TekworkX Motorsport Toyota 86 Series trio of Andrew Shah, Rossi Johnson and Jayden Wanzek have expressed their eagerness to deliver on the promising pace they displayed at round one of the 2022 season.
The Bathurst 12 Hour will play host to round 2 of the Toyota 86 Series as part of it’s support category offering around the main event. The trip to Bathurst marks the second time in three rounds the category has tackled the Mountain.
At Sydney Motorsport Park, a wet Friday allowed Shah and Wanzek to shine as the fifth and sixth fastest drivers in final practice. In dryer conditions across Saturday and Sunday, the aforementioned duo and Johnson all had bouts of bad luck which hampered their top 10 potential.
Wanzek was blocked by traffic in qualifying and turned around by a competitor in race two, Shah’s progress was slowed by a high number of laps behind the Safety Car and Johnson suffered a similar problem after missing the window in Qualifying and becoming mired in the mid pack.
The opening round ended with Shah 11th in points ahead of Johnson in 14th and Wanzek 22nd.
Conditions for this weekend are expected to be wet and similar to the Friday at SMP where the TekworkX trio excelled. Shah and Johnson both competed in the 2021 season ending round at Mount Panorama while Wanzek is coming off a top 10 in class at the Bathurst 6 Hour.
Quotes:
Andrew Shah – “We were fairly quick in the closing stages at Bathurst last year so I’m keen to pick up where I left off there.
“Round one was my best round so far in Toyota 86, but it could have been even better, we just had a little bad luck with contact and safety cars. We were definitely a top five car.
“I know what I need to do as a driver in order to get the maximum performance out of myself and the car and utilise the track conditions as best I can. I’m just excited to be hopping back in a car, normally I’d have done some karting between rounds but that hasn’t happened this year. Fingers crossed conditions are similar to practice at SMP!”
Rossi Johnson – “There has been a lot of anticipation for this round thanks to the big break since Sydney. I’ve had a lot of time reflect on how we raced and what we can take from round one into Bathurst.
“We made some valuable gains across that weekend both on the track and in how I approached each session.
“With such a large field, qualifying is extremely important not just to have good track position but to stay ahead of any drama and incidents on such a tight track.
“It’s a pretty packed schedule with just two days of on track action, it’ll be quick turnarounds for the crew between sessions and we’ll have to work hard to maximise our debriefings and data analysis.”
Jayden Wanzek – “Heading into this weekend I’m feeling very positive. I’m fortunate that while I haven’t raced a Toyota here, I’ve got experience from the 6 Hour not long ago and a few laps in a Hyundai Excel last year.
“The opening round was certainly a tough introduction to the series, nothing seemed to go my way and the changeable conditions just made it even trickier.
“We’ll look to really focus on qualifying this round to ensure I’m not buried in the pack again, and then I can work on improving our performances on track and getting some better results.”
