A PODIUM and a new Radical Cup Australia lap record at Mount Panorama – that is what Bathurst driver Dave Pennells is hoping to see from his team this weekend.
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Pennells forms part of a two-car PMF Motorsport attack which will tackle a pair of 45-minute Radical Australia Cup races at his home track. The series opening round is part of the Bathurst 12 Hour support program.
Pennells will share the wheel of his #99 entry with Matt Windsor, while the newer-model #216 which Brad Shiels and Grant Denyer will pilot is the car the car he feels can push for the record.
The current mark stands at 2:12.2670 set by Peter Paddon, a man who has won seven of the eight Radical Cup races he has contested at Mount Panorama.
But Pennells is confident that Shiels and Denyer, talented drivers with their share of experience at the circuit, can lower that mark and defy their team name – PMF stands for pigs might fly.
“One of those guys break the track record – that’s the goal, the car is fast enough to do it,” he said.
READ MORE: Pennells gathers data ahead of 12 Hour event
Dave Pennells’ son Stuart owns the #216 car and while he did not get his licence in time to compete in the series opener, he too is excited to see what Shiels and Denyer can do.
“I drive it enough, it will be good to see these guys drive it around and hopefully win something. They didn’t need me being the anchor holding it up,” he laughed.
“The car is quick enough, we’ll see if the drivers are, but they should be. I think they’ll be fine.
“We took it to Wakefield the other day on 2½ year-old tyres and it was a 40-something degree day and Brad was only half a second off the best times down there then. So there won’t be too much wrong with the car side of things.”
While the lure of racing on his home track was what drove Pennells to enter the Radical Australia Cup, the formation of the two-car, four-Bathurst driver outfit came about due to a series regulation for the Mount Panorama round.
“You’ve got to do a compulsory driver change or, if you’re doing it as a single driver and professionals can’t do it as a single driver, you’ve got to get out of the car and do a one-minute stop,” Dave Pennells explained.
“It’s quicker to do a driver change than it is to do that stop.”
In inviting Windsor to share his seat, Pennells has team-mate who has plenty of experience contesting endurance races at the Mount.
Though Windsor has not previous driven a Radical car, he will use Thursday morning’s practice session to familiarise himself.
“I’ve done four 12 Hours, two Bathurst 6 Hours, the 24 hour, all that. I had three podiums in the 12 Hour,” Windsor said of his endurance driving history.
“It will be good fun, I haven’t driven this thing before yet, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve just got to get my head around the paddle shifters and down forces.
“I used to race super sports before they had sequential gear boxes, I did that for two years, so hopefully it won’t take me long to get my head around it and yeah, we’ve got the home track advantage.”
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After steering a MARC Cars Mazda V8 in last year’s Bathurst 12 Hour – placing 25th outright and second in class – Denyer is excited to be involved with the event once more.
While he first ventured into racing as a 16-year-old, and has wide motor sport experience – including steering Supercars, V8 Utes, Porsches and a Lotus - Denyer has not previously driven a Radical.
The prospect of doing so at Bathurst is something which excites him.
“I’ve never driven one, I’ve sat at the fence as a spectator and watched them for years and it’s like this is my chance to feel like Mark Webber or Dan Ricciardo. It’s a great opportunity and being a local team as well makes it a bit more special.
“They’re wild looking machines.
“I got my licence in a Formula Vee and that was it, I’ve never not had a roof over my head. Hopefully the wind won’t mess my hair as us TV blokes, we take that stuff very seriously,” Denyer joked.
“But it’s good because you’re out in the elements, it’s pretty raw and rough and wild. You really get that authentic Bathurst experience.”
With Radicals expected to hit around 240km/hr down Conrod Straight and average around 168km/hr for a lap, Denyer is keen to see just what sort of times he can clock.
“They say they’re a really good thing to drive because they’ve got a lot of down force and around this track, that’s what you need. It’s scary enough, but the car is quite planted and that inspires confidence and confidence inspires good lap times,” he said.
“Apparently going down Conrod Straight your head gets buffeted a little bit by the high speeds, but it’s cool, I’m up for it.”
Like Windsor, Pennells and Denyer, Shiels has never previously contested a Radical Australia Cup race. The Australian GT regular is more frequently behind the wheel of various models of Porsches and has also raced a Lamborghini Huracan.
However, he has cut plenty of laps behind the wheel of a Radical as part of his occupation, so has an idea of what to expect at Mount Panorama.
“I’ve done a lot of driver training in these things, but it’s actually my first race. I’ve done a lot of laps, but never under race conditions, so it should be good,” he said.
“They are actually not too dissimilar [to a Porsche] in the way that they drive, they’ve got quite a lot of aero in the back. It probably just lacks power – that’s the biggest thing – but it makes up for that around the corner with how good it brakes because they are so light.”
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Shiels has previous experience racing on the 12 Hour program, contesting the headline enduro in 2015 in a Porsche 997. Unfortunately that year the entry he shared with Matt Campbell and Andrew Macpherson was a DNF. He is hoping for better in the support category and is keen to give the lap record a shot.
“There should be a big crowd up there this year, so it should be pretty cool to drive up there. It is always good when you get to drive at Bathurst, there are not many opportunities to do it,” he said.
“It should be really cool, I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we can have a fair crack at it. I think the lap record is 2:12.2 at the moment, so hopefully we can go a little bit quicker, we’ll see.
The first of the two Radical Australia Cup races will commence at 7.15am Friday.
