Hazelwood buoyed by 'faultless' shakedown
Wednesday’s maiden Gen3 shakedown proved "faultless" for Todd Hazelwood and the Blanchard Racing Team.
BRT rolled out its in-house built Gen3 Ford Mustang at Winton Motor Raceway yesterday.
Team Co-Principal Tim Blanchard took chassis BRT001 for an installation lap before handing over to Hazelwood.
Under sunny skies, Hazelwood and his team rolled through a program before turning up the wick.
In all, the day ran smoothly, leaving BRT recruit Hazelwood keen to learn more about extracting performance from the car.
"It was a cracking day," the 2017 Super2 champion told Supercar.com.
"It was a special day; not only was it the first Gen3 car, but the first in-house built BRT car.
"So much work went into it, and to see Tim do the first laps… seeing the emotion of the team was special.
"To get my first laps of the car I’ll be driving this year gave me great insight of what to expect this year.
"It’ll be a great challenge to understand how to get the most out of these cars.
"It’s great for everyone involved and great for our series."
The #3 CoolDrive Mustang will return to Winton for further testing next week, with more teams set for their first shakedowns.
The likes of Dick Johnson Racing, Matt Stone Racing (Queensland Raceway), Brad Jones Racing and Penrite Racing (Winton) will hit the track on February 7.
Tickford Racing, Triple Eight and PremAir Racing are also set to shakedown their new cars next week.
Given the day’s progression, Hazelwood was able to push the car to continue to learning curve.
"We went into the day making sure we did everything properly and followed our program," Hazelwood said.
"I’ve been in the workshop nearly every day for the last three weeks
"It was a very thorough build — the attention to detail was rewarded with a faultless day on track.
"We took our time, we didn’t want to rush through the day because we wanted to learn as much as we could.
"Once we ticked those boxes, we started getting into longer runs and push laps towards the end of the day.
"It was a joy to drive."
All teams will test together at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 22.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle on March 10-12.
Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.
