Kody Garland leaves round five of the Australian Drivers’ Championship optimistic for his chances at the final round in Adelaide after earning his first top five on the weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park.
In just his second round in S5000, Garland faced an uphill battle from the outset at the South Australian circuit with a wet opening practice. Practice two was drier, but still far from the optimal conditions once off the narrow racing line, leaving Garland entering qualifying at the high speed circuit without much in the way of experience to lean on. That put the Wholesale Diesel driver eighth on the grid for race one.
The opening race of the weekend was held early on Saturday morning, with the kerbs still soaking wet from the dew laid overnight. Many drivers found trouble but Garland made no mistakes as he steadily climbed up the order to finish in fifth place. The result marks the 23 year old’s first top five in S5000, and best result to date.
Race two later that morning was a much simpler affair, with Garland going on to finish in seventh place. Confidence on corner entry was a particular sticking point for the rookie, which limited his ability to push through some of the highest average speed corners on the calendar.
For the weekend’s final race, Garland and the Garry Rogers Motorsport team had worked on a myriad of changes to his #41 aimed at further tailoring the S5000 to his driving style. The tweaks paid off as Garland found a notable improvement on his lap times, running with the lead pack for most of the race and consistently matching the times of the more experienced drivers in front. After finishing in seventh, Garland was happy to have found the improvement in speed ahead of the final round.
“We made big steps forward in every race this weekend,” said Garland.
“It was a really positive round for us and we learnt a lot about the setup that perhaps works better for me and my driving style. We went a different way to the others and I think it paid off at the end of the weekend. We built up the confidence over the three races, the good result in really tricky conditions in race one played a big part in that.
“When we first said we were doing these three rounds in S5000 we set out Adelaide as our target to try and fight for podiums and I certainly don’t think that is out of the ballpark. We’ve made big gains in just two rounds, to where we were lapping pretty consistently with the pack that were racing for third spot in that last race.
“It’s just about trying to keep up with the experience of the front guys which is where we’re lacking, but that’s no excuse. Hopefully we can roll out at Adelaide in a similar window to where we left off here and start the weekend a bit closer to the front,” concluded Garland.
The final round of the Australian Drivers’ Championship takes place at the VALO Adelaide 500 from November 23-26. Garland will be in action next for Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at Sandown from September 8-10.