Randle aiming to build on 'solid' Winton round

Tickford Racing rookie Thomas Randle says he is "close to cracking the ten" following a consistent run of results in Winton.

Randle completed his first main game event at the rural circuit in last weekend’s Pizza Hut Winton SuperSprint.

In a hugely successful weekend for his Tickford teammate Cam Waters, Randle recorded two top-15 results.

Randle, who completed his fifth round as a full-time driver, reached Q2 in ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Saturday.

Critically, the 26-year-old out-qualified veteran Tickford teammate James Courtney.

Randle finished 12th in Saturday’s opener, 0.9s ahead of Courtney.

Later, the Victorian-born driver finished 12th in Sunday’s finale, climbing four places from 16th.

It comes after he recorded his Supercars career-best qualifying result at Albert Park last month.

Speaking on Supercars' Cool Down Lap podcast, Randle is keen to build on his newfound consistency.

“This weekend was actually pretty solid,” Randle said.

“Every other round this year sort of been very up and down.

“But we've been a lot more consistent, sort of battling around that like a 12 to 14th region.

“We were 12th yesterday, we were battling in 14th for a while in the first race, and then got caught up in a bit of racing and finished 18 today.

“I think the speed was there and then finished off 12th in the last one again.

“I think that it's awesome that Cam got the win twice this weekend, two poles and a second place.

“I think it's one of his most successful weekends, I would have thought, and probably up there was one of the team's most successful weekends as well.”

“It’s nice to have the win at home too.

“I think everything that the team has been working on behind the scenes has been paying off.”

Randle was part of the rookie test day held at the rural circuit a week out from the Winton event.

The #55 Castrol Mustang driver also sampled Winton’s introduction to the iRacing platform.

For Randle, the test was also an opportunity to help his team ahead of the weekend’s racing.

“I'd like to hope so,” Randle said.

“I think what we worked on in our car at the test day last week wasn't just for us.

“That was a whole team test at just using one car.

“I mean, Cam drove the car on that test day, you know, did his 10 laps.

“He was able to drive it and feel what we were doing.

“But as I said, it was more like an overall tick for the engineering tests, and my car was the test mule, but that's really good for everyone.

“I think there's really no better validation than going out and winning two races.”

Randle will return to the seat of the #55 Tickford Mustang at next month's Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

It marks 12 months since he drove a wildcard entry for the team at the Northern Territory circuit last June.

The 2022 season will resume in Darwin next month. Purchase your tickets now.