DJR Team Penske confirms Ipswich test plan

Marcos Ambrose and DJR Team Penske will be on track at Queensland Raceway later this week, making early use of their one and only private test day for the season.

The team is scheduled to hit the track on Thursday, running through an extensive test program with both Ambrose and Scott Pye at the wheel.

The #17 Ford will share the Ipswich venue with Erebus Motorsport, which plans to utilise a rookie day for Ashley Walsh

DJRTP had hoped to test today (Monday), but pulled the pin due to wet weather before any running took place.

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“We had it pencilled in for today but we knew that weather was going to be a factor so we made sure we had options,” DJRTP managing director Ryan Story told Speedcafe.com.

“We’ll test later on in the week when we know the weather is going to be better.

“We’ve got a full day’s program to run through so we need to make sure we make the most of it.”

DJRTP has worked closely with technical supplier Prodrive since Symmons Plains, where the installation of Pye helped the team hone in on its early season issues.

Story confirmed that his team received more front-end components from Prodrive last week and will test the Supashock dampers seen in all four of the factory-supported team’s cars.

DJRTP is currently with the bulk of the field in running the Triple Eight-distributed Sachs dampers, but is preparing to switch to the Australian-made Supashock units at Barbagallo.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a silver bullet solution to the problems we’ve been having,” Story said.

“But to maximise the benefit of our Prodrive relationship we need to know that when we’re bolting on one of their set-ups our race car performs in the same way.

“One of the missing ingredients for the last 12 months or so has been the Supashock so it’s something that we’ll be evaluating at the test day.”

Chaz Mostert’s engineer Adam De Borre is meanwhile working from DJRTP’s Queensland base today having flown up from Melbourne for the planned test.

Although both Ambrose and Pye will cut laps at Queensland Raceway on Thursday, the team is only permitted to run one of its chassis.

The squad will test with the car Pye raced at Symmons Plains while its other chassis, last seen at Albert Park, is prepared for the trip to Western Australia.

Pye will race the now MTU-backed Falcon at the upcoming Barbagallo event in place of Ambrose, who is yet to confirm when he’ll return to racing duties.