TekworkX Motorsport’s trio of drivers in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series are excited to tackle the challenges of the Reid Park Street Circuit this weekend in Townsville.
Andrew Shah, Rossi Johnson and Jayden Wanzek will all feel a level of confidence heading towards round three of the season after flashes of speed across Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst for all three young drivers.
Shah has taken his preparation up a notch by spending a number of weeks integrating with the team at their Gold Coast Workshop, working on the team’s fleet of cars and furthering his understanding of his own Toyota 86.
“It’s been really great, the last couple of weeks up here on the Gold Coast,” said Shah.
“It’s certainly a whole lot different to Wagga Wagga where I’ve grown up, but more importantly working closer with the team has been invaluable. I’ve spent a lot of time working on all the cars and a fair bit on the simulator as well. We’ve done some team bonding exercises and the team have really helped me to further understand the Toyota and how it works.
“I made my debut at Townsville last year and I think it was surprising the pace I had by the end of the weekend, unfortunately since then I haven’t really nailed qualifying but we’ve identified how I can improve in that area. With the equal cars and talent in the field, you basically have to qualify in the top five otherwise you spend the whole weekend fighting with other cars,” concluded Shah.
Johnson recently broke through for his first ever top 10 in race three at Bathurst with a ninth place finish after previously finishing 11th on two occasions. Johnson’s first trip to Townsville in 2021 came to a premature end after becoming an innocent victim to a multi-car incident in race one.
“I feel pretty confident coming off our good showing around the mountain,” said Johnson.
“Townsville is a great track and somewhere that I really love, the street circuit vibe suits me and my driving so I love it. The key will be qualifying this weekend, I’ve been really good at making my way through the field but the risk of being mid pack on a street circuit is amplified.
“There will be a high risk of a red flag in the qualifying session so we’ll put a big focus on our early session speed,” concluded Johnson.
Wanzek makes his first ever start on a street circuit this weekend, in a maiden Toyota 86 season that has so far not quite gotten started after a string of misfortune and mechanical failures.
“I’m a little nervous, I know street circuits have an increased danger of an incident if you get it wrong but I’m also excited for the challenge,” said Wanzek.
“Since Bathurst I’ve continued to have some driver training which hopefully gives me a bit of an edge heading to Townsville over some of the drivers who haven’t been in the car since the last round.
“It has been a difficult couple of rounds so far with some bad luck so I’m really looking to put it all together this weekend, I certainly feel like I’ve got the pace to fight at the front.
“Qualifying has been one of the hardest things to wrap my head around, in fact I think all three of us are in the same scenario in that regard. The issue is in this category if you don’t qualify up the order it’s really hard to make up with all the aggressive fighting and your weekend never really recovers,” concluded Wanzek.
Round three of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series runs on the support bill to the NTI Townsville 500 from July 8-10. Friday the 8th will see two practice sessions and qualifying.
