BATHURST drivers Brad Shiels and Grant Denyer could be part of Australian Endurance Championship history this Saturday when they take on the longest race ever staged by the GT3 series.
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To be held at Sydney Motorsport Park, the race will feature 129 laps of the 3.93 kilometre circuit, meaning drivers could cover a record distance of just over 501km.
After placing 15th in the championship’s opening round at Phillip Island, Shiels will once again join Andrew Macpherson in the AMAC Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan.
Shiels and his team-mate are still adjusting to the Huracan, which is new this season, but the Bathurst talent is much more familiar with Sydney Motorsport Park.
“It’s home track for me which I’ve done thousands of laps around, so hopefully that might count for something,” he said.
“We were there [last] Thursday for a test day in the Lamborghini, that was a really constructive day. We got a lot of testing done and the car set up a bit better.
“We are getting more on top of it now, it’s still not 100 percent yet, but it should be a little bit more competitive now.”
The laps the duo did on that test day will be valuable given the limited amount of time they will get in the seat before qualifying for Saturday’s race.
The Sydney Motorsport Park 501 will be run on the Supercars’ Sydney SuperSprint program and as such, grid positions will be determined by the fastest average time across a pair of 20-minute qualifying sessions.
“We don’t have a lot of practice time this weekend, so it’s pretty hard to set the car up. You’ve got to go there with the car pretty much 95 percent of the way there,” Shiels said.
“We only get a 20-minute practice on Friday and that’s it, it’s not very long, especially with two drivers as well.”
Though Friday will present its challenges, Shiels is looking forward to Saturday’s endurance test.
“It’s a long race which is cool, I like endurance races so I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.
“It’s just whether we stay out of any of the carnage in the race, which is always a bit of a risk.
“You can really expect too much, it’s a long race and anything can happen. But you always have a goal to do well and do the best you can, we don’t set any goals as such other than do well.”
Meanwhile, Denyer will pair with Greg Taylor behind the wheel of the GT Motorsport Audi R8 LMS in what will be his first race since clinching the 2016 championship at Highlands Park last year.
“It’s always nice to come back. I’m still riding high after last year’s championship victory to be honest, so hopefully we can have a good shake,” Denyer said.
“Everybody says the Audi’s quite a good car to drive, so once I get my head around the quirks that make it unique, we’ll be sweet.
“There’s a bit of aero around here, that’s good for the Audi. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The round commences on Friday with practice from 8.05am and two qualifying sessions. Saturday’s race starts at 7.35am.
