“Hidden Valley is a track I really enjoy, the long straight suits cars with good top-end speed and our engines are definitely working well at the moment in terms of both the quick stuff and getting power down out of the corners.
“It is so hard to win in this sport that the chance to put together a hat-trick of wins at any track is something very special. I didn’t get to defend last year’s victory in China so I’m pretty pumped to put in a good one in Darwin.”
Certainly his teammate Mark Skaife will be looking to put together a competitive package to net his thirty-eighth and Australian Touring Car Championship record-breaking win.
“I tend to put a strong emphasis on qualifying well - it’s a very important part of the weekend both in terms of your physical track position and the mental boost you get from knowing your car is the quickest out there,” said Skaife.
“But it’s a hollow victory if you can’t follow it up with a good weekend on the racetrack, so we’ve been trying to make sure that we get the right balance between our qualifying setup and the way we tune the car to race.
“I feel confident that we know enough about this car and the tracks we visit to get a good result on any given weekend. We scrambled all weekend at Winton and only just missed the podium, so that bodes well for us.”
Both Garth Tander and Rick Kelly hope to take the first win for the Toll HSV Dealer Team this weekend. As yet, neither driver has stood on top of the podium for an outright victory this year, however each man is confident their previous performance which saw a double podium in 2005, can go one better in 2006.
“We had a very good weekend there last year. It was the turning point for our season, and we are looking forward to getting back there this year, with plenty of confidence and good car speed,” said Tander.
