The Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia concludes at the Gold Coast 600 this weekend, and GWR Australia drivers Duvashen and Indiran Padayachee are both looking forward to finishing the season at a venue where they have achieved strong results in the past.
Duvashen’s record at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit is particularly impressive; he finished in the top six in his 2013 debut at the track, and has recorded 11 top-10 finishes from 12 Carrera Cup race starts on the 2.98km circuit.
“It’s a track where you really have to use your brain,” he said.
“It’s unforgiving, and there is no margin for error with concrete walls and tyre bundles everywhere.
“It has lots of bumps, kerbs and other imperfections, so it’s a case of ensuring your racing lines are perfect every lap, and balancing risk and reward.”
Duvashen’s best result of the 2019 season came in Round 6 at The Bend, where he ran inside the top five. By his own admission, the most recent round at Bathurst didn’t reach the same lofty heights.
“For whatever reason, it took a bit longer than I would have liked, to get down to competitive lap times,” he said.
“I’ve changed my mental approach for this weekend, and hopefully I can be on the pace from earlier in the event.”
Duvashen’s father Indiran said the Gold Coast was one of his best rounds of 2018.
“I’m really looking forward to racing at Surfers Paradise again, because last year it was a track where I was competitive in the Pro-Am Class; I was having a good battle with Graham Williams all weekend, but unfortunately we came together in the last race and I ended up in the wall.
“In the last round at Bathurst, I was really stoked with my improvement over the course of the weekend and hopefully I can do something similar at the Gold Coast. I’ll have my best lap time from last year as a target to aim towards; hopefully I can beat it early in the weekend like I did at Bathurst, and keep improving from there.”
This weekend’s sessions will all be shown live on FOX Sports and Kayo, while the races will also be shown on Channel 10.
Carrera Cup Round 8 Schedule
*Queensland time – add one hour for NSW/ACT
Friday, 25 October
9:35 – Practice 1 (25 min)
13:00 – Practice 2 (25 min)
16:10 – Qualifying (20 min)
Saturday, 26 October
13:25 – Race 1 (28 laps)
Sunday, 27 October
8:45 – Race 2 (17 laps)
13:40 – Race 3 (17 laps)
