Chahda hits the track with repaired FG

Matt Chahda Motorsport completed a successful test day yesterday at Winton, determined to improve results in the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series at upcoming round the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400.

After contesting the start of the 2015 season with R-Sport Race Engineering, at the last round 21-year old rookie Matt Chahda debuted his own car, switching to a Ford Falcon FG for the remainder of the season and running as a privateer team.

Unfortunately for the young driver, it wasn't a smooth debut - after an incident with Dan Day, the car needed repairs to the rear.

After sourcing a new boot, rear quarters and bumper from Prodrive Racing (Australia) Chahda and the team hit the track yesterday to ensure everything was working well ahead of this month's street races at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400, running from July 10-12 in Townsville.

"The aim of the test day was really to learn the ins and outs of the chassis and give us an understanding of how the car reacts to the changes," Chahda told v8supercars.com.au.

"Using [yesterday's] data plus the data already collected from round three last month, we were looking for real gains and worked hard on looking after the tyres.

"We didn't have time to even complete a proper seat fitting before the Winton round, so I'm feeling much more comfortable in the car and this then allowed for some great driver development and I turn resulted in some great lap times."

Chahda is hoping to improve his qualifying and believes the changes made yesterday would enable him to drive the car to the limits at Townsville.

"We tried lots of changes; found out what worked, what didn't and let us unlock some speed in a few different areas. Now I'm much more comfortable behind the wheel and feel better suited to pushing the car to 110 per cent," he said after approximately 40 laps.

Chahda is hoping to qualify in the top half of the field at the tricky Townsville street track next weekend.

"Top 15 in qualifying is definitely were we want to be, then leading in to some deep top 15 finishes," he said.

"We would love to be knocking on the door of the top 10."

The break between Winton and Townsville has given a number of teams the opportunity to test, with Eggleston Motorsport also on track yesterday at Winton, and Matt Stone Racing at Queensland Raceway on Monday.

The V8 Supercars Dunlop Series kicks off on July 10 at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 - click here for ticketing details.