Stokes Skis Australia Racing has revealed a new weapon for the Australian Production Car Series, purchasing an ex-CXC Global Racing Mitsubishi Evo X which it will campaign at this weekend’s Sydney Motorsport Park 4 Hour.
The team’s regular driver, Jason Miller, will be joined for the enduro by the Evo X’s previous owner, Dylan Thomas, who has a formidable record at the Western Sydney venue.
So far this season, Miller has produced some giant-killing performances aboard an Evo IX, highlighted by a top-five finish in the previous round at Winton. But Miller said the decision to upgrade machinery was driven by hunger for better outright results.
“We’ve done the absolute best we could with the Evo IX, we’ve driven the wheels off it,” Miller said.
“While we’ve managed to achieve some good results, they’ve been through strategy rather than necessarily having the out-and-out speed of some other cars.
“With the Evo X, we’re allowed to run a bit more turbo boost, so there should be a straight-line performance gain there. Also, the car itself is just a bit more developed and refined compared to the IX, so theoretically it’s a stronger package.”
Miller heaped praise upon his co-driver Dylan Thomas.
“Dylan has done a lot of laps at Sydney Motorsport Park and he’s won plenty of races across all different categories,” Miller said.
“He’s been especially strong in production cars at both state and national level, and he’s been running the Evo for a number of seasons so he certainly knows how to set it up.
“The two of us should make a strong combination and I’m looking forward to learning from him.”
Miller pointed to tyre degradation as one of the determining factors for the race.
“The AWD cars have typically been quite hard on their tyres, so hopefully it doesn’t affect us too much. We’ll have to think about tyre management, and not push too hard too early in each stint.
“It’s going to be a long, tough race and we’re expecting a mixture of strategies – we know some of the Lotuses and BMWs will be tough to beat on speed, but we’ll be giving it our best shot.”
Australian Production Cars Round 4 Schedule
Saturday, 22 September
8:55am – Practice (30 min)
1:33pm – Qualifying 1 (15 min)
1:53pm – Qualifying 2 (15 min)
Sunday, 23 September
10:49am – Warm-up (10 min)
1:26pm – Race (240 min)
