A five-day lockout in Victoria has forced him to postpone Winton’s pre-season Supercars trial.
The entire state will be thrown into a snap closure from midnight tonight, in response to a growing COVID-19 group linked to the state’s hotel quarantine program.
People can only leave their home for essential reasons and their mobility is limited to a radius of five kilometers.
The lock is expected to end at midnight next Wednesday.
As first reported by Autosport that has taken away Tuesday’s pre-season Supercars test at Winton.
It will now take place on Friday 19 February, just a week before the start of the season at Mount Panorama.
“As a result of the recently announced five-day state lockdown in Victoria, Supercars has rescheduled the planned test day in Winton to Friday, February 19, 2021,” read a statement from Supercars .
“Further details will be provided once the arrangements are finalized.”
The six Melbourne-based teams – Walkinshaw Andretti United, Tickford Racing, Erebus Motorsport, Team 18, Kelly Grove Racing and Team Racing Blanchard – were ready to take part in the test, along with Brad Jones Racing, which is based throughout the world. New South Welsh Borders in Albury.
Victoria has been hit hard in Australia by locksmiths since the start of the global health crisis, after months of severe restrictions in the second half of last year.
That left the Melbourne teams in exile for four months after a spectacular finish run to keep the season going.
Autosport sources have revealed that there are currently no plans to retry, with crews staying put at the moment.
If snap locking can’t reduce the revolution, there’s a risk that the two opening rounds at Bathurst and Sandown could be affected.
Goddard tops Queensland Supercars test
Zane Goddard was an unexpected packer at the first official Supercars pre-season test.
Driver Matt Stone Racing made the most of the quick early situations, going faster with what was confirmed as 1m09.025s not available immediately after the half-hour mark.
Newcomer Dick Johnson Racing Anton De Pasquale and Goddard MSR team player Jake Kostecki almost matched the benchmark times later, but fell short 0.006s and 0.01s respectively.
As the circumstances then faded the early pace could not be repeated over the next seven hours, leaving Goddard with confidence to start his second full-time Supercars campaign.
“It’s funny, I had the fastest lap within the first 40 minutes,” he said. “The rest of the day was just watching the track get hot.
“I’m happy with it. Of course you don’t know what everyone else is doing, whether they’re running new tires or not. It’s hard to read into, but it is It’s good to have confidence at the top. “
Goddard and Kostecki finished just 78 and 57 laps respectively today, the MSR team packing up well before the track closed. They did, however, come into the test today with more runs than their competitors with permission from a full rookie test day on Wednesday.
They will also return for a second rookie test next week before the start of the season at Mount Panorama at the end of the month.
De Pasquale completed a total of 95 laps on what was his first real look in DJR colors after shaking off the new chassis on Wednesday.
Triple Eight set the pace in terms of running, the Commodores # 88 and # 97 covering 131 and 166 laps respectively. That included stacks in the cars for both enduro drivers Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander, with the latter getting a short offline walk in the morning session.
There were no Hollywood moments from title contestants Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen, however, the pair is fourth and fifth fastest.
Will Davison completed 90 laps on what marked his return to DJR, finishing sixth fastest, and Sydney Team newcomers Garry Jacobson and Fabian Coulthard completed the schedule.
But Coulthard encountered some early problems early in the day with radio and gearbox issues that cost him a bit of a run, and team owner Jonathon Webb spent time in the # 19 entry.