Every driver ran on new hard tyres in this morning’s first practice session at ITM 400 Auckland, and in-form racer Fabian Coulthard topped the times.
While Coulthard seemed reasonably happy with the #14 Lockwood Racing Holden Commodore, he said the team will make adjustments prior to the three afternoon sessions.
“(The car’s) alright – we need to make it a little bit nicer to ride the bumps – but so far, so good,” Coulthard said.
“We rolled out the car and it’s fast – it’s always a worry, you go from one round to the next and you don’t know if the car is going to perform as well as it should – but to roll the car out and go quickest in the first session in front of a home crowd is a pretty good feeling.”
The only current Kiwi racer to have driven a V8 Supercar around Pukekohe before, Coulthard described the new segment of the track as “different”.
“Obviously it’s got no grip on it because there’s no rubber on it yet, so I’m sure as the weekend progresses it will get better and better.
“We’re top of the time sheets after the first one, but come more and more sessions everyone will work out what the braking point is, and what they can get away with and what they can’t.
“Tomorrow’s the day – it’s a good start but not we’re not getting the hopes up just yet.
“On a Friday we’ll always make some adjustments (to the car) – sometimes you make it better, sometimes you make it worse – but as long as the car is 100 per cent by qualifying, and hopefully we’re at the front.”
Coulthard and teammate Jason Bright dominated the last event in Tasmania last weekend, winning all three races between them.
Coulthard has two championship race wins under his belt so far and currently sits seventh in the championship.
