Bundy Red Racing remains upbeat after practice at the Gold Coast 600 despite running into small road blocks throughout the course of today’s sessions.

Bundy Red Racing regular Fabian Coulthard, and his team-mate David Reynolds, finished the day 17th fastest with Coulthard setting a time of 1 minute 13.2110 around the 2.98km circuit.

However, their day didn’t start as well as they would have hoped, Coulthard only getting 12 laps into the first session before stumbling across a problem with the engine in car #24. The team went to work on changing the engine and only completed the swap moments before Reynolds climbed in for the co-driver session during Practice 3. 

Despite losing valuable track time, Coulthard and Reynolds were still able to adequately progress through their practice program, finishing out the day 17th on the time sheets.

Similarly, the streets of Surfers Paradise threw up a number of hurdles for Andrew Thompson and his international co-driver Mika Salo.

Salo was handed the keys to the #10 Bundy Red Racing Commodore for Practice 2 and Practice 3 and gained valuable V8 experience during these sessions. However, he was caught out by the tyre bundles at turn 1 which were pushed into his path in Practice 3, the impact damaging the steering and forcing him into the pits.

Another altercation with the tyres towards the end of the co-driver session caused further damage which took the team considerable time to repair. Thompson made it out for the last ten minutes of the final session and the pair ended the day 27th on the timing screens.

Overcoming the challenges thrown their way, the team will look to further improve in qualifying tomorrow morning before Race 19 later in the afternoon.

Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden were fastest with Paul Dumbrell and Jacques Villeneuve second. James Courtney and Warren Luff were third.

Fabian Coulthard - #24 Bundaberg Red Racing VE Commodore:

“We had a bit of a drama in that first session with our engine overheating and we were forced to change it which means we only got a handful of laps in that session. I suppose we are already a little but behind everyone else but the team did a really good job to change the engine and get Dave in the car and he did a really good job in his session. We made quite a few adjustments to the car that made it better in some areas but difficult to drive in others so we need to have a look at the data tonight and work on it so we can come up with a plan before qualifying tomorrow.” 

David Reynolds - #24 Bundaberg Red Racing VE Commodore:

“Our day ended ok considering how it started. It probably didn’t begin how we expected with that engine drama in the first session but we pressed on. We made some good improvements in my session and Fabian was able to give some positive feedback in his run at the end of the day so I think we are moving in the right direction. It is good to be able to do some laps here, I am really enjoying it.”

Mika Salo - #24 Bundaberg Red Racing VE Commodore:

“Today was good for me, I am definitely learning a lot. However I keep hitting things with the left hand side of the car because I am not used to right hand drive cars! I bent the steering twice in my sessions which is not good but I think we can improve the car because we didn’t get to run a fresh set of tyres so it will be interesting to see tomorrow in qualifying how fast we are. These cars aren’t easy to drive, it is tough racing so it is going to be exciting with so many cars on the track.”