Top-20 Finishes For Scott Pye In Return To V8 Supercars
March 28, 2015
Launceston, Tasmania, 28.03.2015. Scott Pye has returned to the V8 Supercars Championship today at Symmons Plains and delivered two Top 20 finishes to DJR Team Penske. After a third practice session, the field were out for Qualifying in two, short ten minute hit outs.
This was the first Qualifying for Pye since the Sydney 500 last December, and he did well to score a P15 and P18 for the twin 25 lap races.
The Super Sprint format meant improvement from grid positions would be tough and this proved to be the case for Scott. In the first race he was battling hard with Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison, but ran wide at Turn 6 and dropped a few spots. A P18 finish was a good recovery, however Pye believed that the handling of the Wurth Falcon FG X was still not 100% to his liking.
A number of set up changes were made for Race 2. Scott was immediately in a battle with Jason Bright which was to last most of the race. The team had made some positive gains in the cars performance and Scott crossed the line in P17.
With the format returning a 200km 84 lap race on Sunday, Pye is looking to better his Qualifying performance and plan the use of the Dunlop Soft tyre with the DJR Team Penske crew.
No 17 – Scott Pye – Wurth DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X
“We were struggling a bit to really get the car to do what we wanted. It is most evident in the mid corner turn. It uses up the tyres and really hurts our ability to get out of the corner and get a run on anyone. We probably should have finished further up but I locked up and ran wide so it did cost us.
“In the second race we did get a better direction and the car reacted a little bit more than we got out of it in the first race. It should give us a better Qualifying car tomorrow. How far up we will see, but we want to be closer to the Top 10 as it is very hard to overtake here.
“Usually at Symmons you would see more overtaking but this year the cars are so even. It looks like everyone is struggling with their own little problems so it is a matter of tuning up the Wurth Falcon to get the best out of it The soft tyre and pit stops tomorrow should make for a better race.”