Team Sydney locks in Bathurst co-drivers
Steve Owen will make his Supercars comeback next month at Bathurst, securing a co-drive for Team Sydney.
The Holden outfit has announced their full line-up for the Great Race, with team owner Jonathon Webb joining forces with Alex Davison in the Local Legends #19 and Owen partnering Chris Pither in the Coca-Cola #22.
Between them, the quartet has 59 previous starts in the 1000km classic.
Owen, who missed out on a seat last year, is the most experienced of them all; his Mountain debut coming in 1999.
The 45-year-old has two second-place finishes at Bathurst to his name – the most recent in 2015 alongside Mark Winterbottom – as well as a pair of Dunlop Super2 titles.
Webb meanwhile conquered Mount Panorama twice in 2016, first in the Bathurst 12 Hour and then in the 1000 with Will Davison.
Davison and Pither have double-digit start tallies to their name too, with both holding a best Bathurst finish of fourth.
“As a group we’ve just been trying to keep some continuity in there and trying to keep moving forward as a group,” Webb explained to Supercars.com.
“Having some experienced drivers like myself and Steve that have been there and done it and had great success at the place before, it puts the whole team in good stead to go there and continue that momentum that we have been able to achieve lately.”
Height similarities made the Davison/Webb and Pither/Owen pairings logical.
“The seat position and insert and everything that Alex has been running all year is identical to the one that I have run ever since I had a Triple Eight car so that’s a natural fit and certainly Steve and Chris, I think they’ll run much the same,” Webb added.
Although the Team Sydney Commodores have generally run in the back half of the field this year, 161 racing laps at Bathurst presents an opportunity for a strong result if they can have a clean run.
“It’s going to be very tough for some of the guys who haven’t been there, rolling into Bathurst without any previous testing or mileage in the cars,” said Webb.
“I think if we can get a reasonable run in qualifying and build ourselves up over the weekend, absolutely come race time, Bathurst is a wild place at the best of times.
“We’ve put on some reasonable speed, the boys in the pitstops have been great and we’ll just chip away – I think we can be on for a strong result with both of the cars come the end of the 1000km.”
Only two co-drives are left to be announced now, those seats falling alongside Andre Heimgartner (Kelly Racing) and Macauley Jones (Brad Jones Racing).
Prior to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 15-18, The Bend will host a doubleheader starting with the Repco SuperSprint this weekend.
