Penrite Racing’s lessons from 2019

Barry Ryan has listed two key lessons his Penrite Racing organisation learned from a mixed 2019 season.

The Penrite Commodores of David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale punched above their weight during a first half of the season dominated by Fords, often leading the Holden charge.

They gradually lost momentum as the year went on though, in a converse trend to teams like the Red Bull Holden Racing Team moving forward.

Nonetheless, they detected an important lesson to carry forward into future championships.

“I think at the start of the year we learned if you are missing something, like the aero efficiency at the start of the year, don’t try to go too far out of the square to try to fix it,” Ryan said.

“You are chasing something you can’t find and you end up chasing your tail.

“So, we probably learned that sometimes you just have to settle for fifth if it’s as good as you can do. So, get fifth and don’t try to get first then actually go backwards and get tenth.

“That’s what we taught ourselves earlier in the year.”

Having both cars stay on a similar development path was another key takeout.

“Keeping the two cars working together is better,” he continued. “It does make a big difference when the two engineers and two drivers work together.”

The team finished the season with nine podiums, and despite Ryan cutting a frustrated figure at times, he reported his satisfaction at his staff’s efforts.

“I would give the team effort an A – it was a good team effort under difficult circumstances,” said Ryan.

“The Mustang came out of the box really strong and the COG [centre of gravity] tests and the aero tests proved that the start of the year was tough for the Commodore teams because we weren’t equal.

“I think we fought well and we got to a point where we challenged the Mustang probably more than any other Holden team so I’d give the team an A.

“Towards the end of the year we were still going OK, but Triple Eight got a bit of a jump on us because they developed the new aero package so they knew a lot more than us and we had to learn it.”

Reynolds and De Pasquale will return for Penrite Racing in 2020, teamed with co-drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki, respectively.