Russell's new look for 'second home round'

Aaren Russell's Go Karts Go Falcon will sport a revised livery for the weekend's Dunlop Series event at Winton Motor Raceway, with updated black and orange to remain on the car this season.  

While the circuit in northern Victoria is approximately 800km from Novocastrian Motorsport’s native Newcastle, the squad has strong ties to the area. With family members hailing from nearby Springhurst, the team will enjoy extra support from locals who venture to the circuit. 

“Winton’s really a second home round for us, with the family that we have living in Springhurst, which is just over half an hour from the track,” Russell said.

“We’ve enjoyed meeting residents from the town over the years and they really get behind us. It’s fantastic to have that support and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone again this weekend.”

In Russell’s first weekend aboard his new-for-2014 Triple Eight-built chassis, the 22-year old was 10th and 13th in the season opener’s two races and sits 13th in the standings. On the streets of Adelaide, qualifying didn’t click for Russell, something he’s keen to address this weekend at Winton, which Novocastrian Motorsport has selected as its 2014 test track.

“We used to test at Wakefield Park, which is a lot closer, but it doesn’t host a round of the series anymore. Now, when we test at Winton, given that it’s somewhere we race, we get more out of the day,” he said.

“In Adelaide, our race pace was good, probably good enough to run inside the top five which is where we want to be, but I had a little bit of a scruffy run in the qualifying sessions. The field is so competitive that you only have to be marginally off, which we were, but it put us on the back foot.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work since then, looking at the data and reviewing what we learnt about the new car, and hopefully I can get that little bit more out of it, especially in qualifying, and have a better run this weekend.”

Round Two of the Dunlop V8 Supercars Series kicks off with a pair of practice sessions on Friday, before qualifying on Saturday morning and 25-lap races on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Tickets are still available for the Winton event.