Morgan Park move no problem

Erebus Motorsport hit the track at Queensland Raceway as usual, but it was a different location for the other Queensland-based teams, heading to Morgan Park for a change of scene.

Testing was as important as ever, with the teams using their final day allocated for 2014 to prepare for the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, with first long distance race the Wilson Security Sandown 500 just over a week away.

TEKNO Autosports team boss Jonathon Webb, who will co-drive with Shane van Gisbergen across the three endurance meetings, had plenty of time in the VIP Petfoods Commodore, 'while Shane slept in the truck' he laughed.

And, it seems, the Kiwi's limited laps still caused troubles: "Shane running over a bird at some stage - that was the only major we had, other than that everything went to plan!"

Overall Webb seemed pleased with the progress and the choice to test at Morgan Park, which he felt shared some characteristics with Sandown.

"At the end of the day I think it was quite useful for what we needed to do. QR we've been there and done before," he said.

"I think there's definitely ups and downs about going out there.

"Having QR and a direct back-to-back of what we may have tried on previous test days, we can't do that. But in saying that, there are elements of this track that may relate better to kerbs, and a few things we'll be dealing with at Sandown, that probably relate better than Queensland Raceway does.

"We took it in our stride. And also we're not really developing the car so much, it was more to give me some miles, do some pit stop practice, driver changes, make sure I can get the thing off the line for starts - more about trying to find little gains."

For Red Bull Racing Australia, the day wasn't quite as smooth, with an early engine change for the #888 new Commodore shared by Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards.

Team boss Mark Dutton said they weren't completely sure what the drama was, but it would be looked at in the coming days.

However, they still managed to get plenty of laps in and felt taking the opportunity to run at Morgan Park - using the extended 2.967km layout - was the right choice.

"Really good testing out at the track - it had what we thought," Dutton told v8supercars.com.au.

"It had some things consistent with Sandown, so that's why we came here. We came here with specific things we thought would be similar - change of direction, things like that QR doesn't really have. So it was really good."

Analysing data will be important over the coming days, but with Lowndes and Richards, as well as the #1 pairing of Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell happy with the Holden Commodores, there's plenty of positivity heading in to the enduros.

"You always have to go back and analyse everything to fully understand the changes you made and all the things tested, but all four drivers were really positive about the track, test, the changes and what worked. We now have to decipher all the data," 'Dutto' said.

"We can compare setup changes, one to the other, and how it affected you in corners we don't usually get to test on.

"So when you're at a race meeting you're doing multiple changes and because you have very limited practice time you don't always fully understand which of the three setup changes made the car go better, or worse, for that matter. So here you try individual changes on certain types of corners or kerbing that we don't usually get to test at."

Erebus Motorsport was alone at Queensland Raceway today, which technical director Wes McDougall said was unusual.

"Everything went as planned or instructed. No one put it off and no issues mechanically, which is always important going into the long distance races we have coming up," he told v8supercars.com.au.

"We've been (to Morgan Park) previously so we know what the circuit is like and we feel we've got good data at Queensland Raceway. Rather than resetting ourselves we've got a baseline and we can compare favourably with that. Also it's good with the brakes and leading into Sandown that's important. It's got a good pit lane for pit stops, so that was helpful."

With Craig Baird - to partner Lee Holdsworth through the Pirtek Enduro Cup - overseas after racing in Malaysia, the team only had three drivers for the day, with Will and Alex Davison sharing the #9 Mercedes AMG E63. Both cars ran around 100 laps and went through the standard procedural work and pit stop practice.

The team tested a new version of the Australian-developed version of the M159 V8 Supercars engine in the #9 car, which went well.

"That's looking promising. Positive on the driveability side of things, so hopefully that will be a step forward for us."

McDougall said it would be decided tomorrow whether the new engine is run for Sandown.

A number of Victorian teams tested at Winton Raceway today - updates to come.