Scott Pye Wraps Up Weekend With Another Top-20
March 30, 2015
Launceston, Tasmania, 29.03.2015. The 200km final race at the Tyrepower Tasmania Super Sprint delivered a solid result for DJR Team Penske with Scott Pye bringing the Wurth Falcon FG X home in P18.
The grid was a buzz prior to the start of the race as teams were playing a cat and mouse game with the choice of tyres. Conventional wisdom suggested that cars would start on the Dunlop ‘hard’ tyre before switching to the run home on the ‘soft’ sprint tyre. However the threat of rain saw the bulk of the field move onto the soft tyre rolling the dice that the cars could need wets later in the race. Others were already planning a soft / hard / soft tyre strategy which in fact was to become the play for most teams.
The DJR crew were deep in discussion with Pye, Marcos Ambrose and the engineers keeping a close eye on what others were doing to ensure their strategy would play out and elected to start on the Dunlop Sprint tyre.
As the lights went green, Scott Pye was away well avoiding a spinning David Reynolds at Turn 2. Pye’s early running on the soft tyre was excellent as he passed Blanchard, Moffat, Todd Kelly, Courtney and Rick Kelly between laps 8 and 13. The Wurth Falcon was soon up to P14.
Taking his first Pit Stop on Lap 16, he dropped to P 20 and despite a number of cars on different strategies, circulated around P20 for his second and third stints. In a largely un eventful race, Pye went a lap down but wrapped up his first V8 Supercars Championship race meeting for 2015 with good finishes in all three races capping it off with P18 today.
No 17 – Scott Pye – Wurth DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X
“We really struggled on the ‘hard’ tyre this weekend. However when we moved to the ‘soft’ tyre the car was very good. I wish we had have been on them all the time! I was running with Shane (Van Gisbergen) late in the race and he was on for a podium.
“The team really learnt a lot this weekend and that was exactly what we were hoping to do. We got a direction which is a good thing and I’m sure the engineers will take that back to the workshop and look to the improvements we need for Perth.
“Having Marcos in the pits all weekend was really good for me and the whole DJR Team Penske group. I was having the same problems he had been struggling with and I’m sure it was re assuring for him. I really want to help the team now and give the best feedback I can but having Marcos here was a huge benefit to me particularly at the de briefs.
“I think the weekend was successful in terms of what we learnt and with a soft tyre the car has pace. We have a good break before Perth and I’m sure we can improve the car for Round 3.”