The sweetest parts of Randle's Bend hat-trick
Being able to silence silly season speculation and translate into results for his team proved key highlights for Tailem Bend hero Thomas Randle.
Randle was Ford’s shining light at the OTR SuperSprint, recording three podiums in as many starts at The Bend Motorsport Park.
The 2020 Super2 champion entered the weekend without a solo podium in 70 starts, and with question marks over his future amid a wild silly season.
In a single weekend, Randle scored three podiums, claimed his maiden Supercars pole position, and jumped from 18th to 14th in the standings.
Heading to the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, the 27-year-old is now just 104 points from the top 10 in the championship.
It was a weekend of broken droughts all around at Tickford Racing, with Cam Waters taking his first podium since the season-opening Thrifty Newcastle 500.
When asked what the best part of his performance was, Randle replied: “Just being able to do it with everyone from the team.
“We all experience the highs and lows together. You have more lows than highs in motorsport.
“The whole garage, the vibe has gone up this weekend. It’s about trying to execute the speed, I think we did that.
“Great to have two Tickford cars on the podium, it’s been a while since that happened.”
Tickford is one of several teams yet to lock in its 2024 plans, but Randle has done his chances of staying put no harm with his Bend hat trick.
The Victorian was only bettered on the weekend by Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki, who extended his series lead with three wins.
“There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes, there’s so many stories about movements,” Randle added.
“I just wanted to concentrate on car #55 and trying to execute, that’s what Ray [Lau, engineer] and the boys did.
“To come out of the weekend second for the round and three podiums — I’d never had a podium solo, and I got three from three."
'We showed it wasn't a fluke'
Given the noise around 2024, Randle had one goal, and one goal only for The Bend — concentrate on performance, and make sure to back it up.
Randle delivered, finishing third on Saturday before coming home second and third on Sunday.
“I wasn’t really worrying about that, I just wanted to concentrate on driving the car, and do the best job I can,” Randle said.
“Up until this point, it’s been a challenging year in many different aspects… it’s tough trying to execute everything, there’s a lot that goes into these races.
“Yesterday for me was a breakthrough podium, and then today we showed it wasn’t a fluke with a second and another third.
"Yesterday was nice to get that off my back, it’s been a long time coming trying to get a solo podium.
“I was a bit more relaxed today, just trying to concentrate on what I needed to do.”
Randle will share his #55 Castrol Mustang with Garry Jacobson at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on September 15-17, and the Repco Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.
