Goddard hunting results with first new car

Zane Goddard is chasing good results in his Darwin wildcard cameo, with the young driver racing a new Supercar for the first time.

Goddard, who will race with Craig Lowndes at Sandown and Bathurst, will steer a third Triple Eight Camaro in Darwin next month.

The Queenslander will become the first wildcard driver of the Gen3 era, solo or enduro, at the June 16-18 betr Darwin Triple Crown.

The Hidden Valley round will be Goddard’s first with a brand-new car.

Goddard, 23, raced former Triple Eight Commodores at Matt Stone Racing in 2020 and 2021, and a two-year-old Tickford Mustang at Mount Panorama in 2022.

The best wildcard result is fifth, by Zak Best at The Bend last year — a result that followed Best’s shock pole position.

"In Supercars, I’ve never had a brand-new car to race, so that’s a really cool experience," said Goddard, who completed the bulk of Gen3 prototype testing last year.

Goddard in Darwin, 2021

"Usually, the cars I’ve had in the past have been hand-me-downs from Jamie [Whincup] and Shane [van Gisbergen], but to have a brand-new car is a cool opportunity.

"There’s going to be certain things to learn from a new car once we shake it down, but those are the experiences I’m really looking forward to.

"I’ve obviously raced full-time before, but to also have a chance in the car to show what I can do is really cool.

"Darwin is always an amazing event, so I’m going to embrace the whole race meeting and hopefully we can get some good results.

"The guys and girls at Triple Eight have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to get the car ready.

"Hopefully we can repay them with a good result and take as much away from it as we can.”

Triple Eight Camaros have won six of the 2023 season’s 12 races — three each for van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.

'I've never had a brand-new car to race'

The #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro will be engineered by former Triple Eight engineer Wes McDougall, who joined MSR in an advisory role this year.

McDougall most recently engineered Whincup in the latter’s final full-time season in 2021.

Goddard and McDougall previously crossed paths when both were at MSR in 2020, and the Gold Coast driver labelled the reunion as “surreal”.

"It’s going to be cool to work with Wes again,” Goddard said.

"I’ve worked with him at past teams, and it’s a bit surreal how it goes full circle and we’re now working together at Triple Eight.

"Knowing the way he works and having that prior knowledge cuts out a lot of the teething phase of growing that relationship.

"He understands what I like and I understand what he means when he says certain phrases which definitely helps.

"He’s an extremely talented, race-winning engineer who has worked at Triple Eight before and it’s great to see him back in the Supercars paddock."

Goddard will test the #888 Camaro for the first time with Lowndes at Queensland Raceway on Thursday.