On a day where anything can happen, many eyes will be on privateer wildcard Matt Chahda Motorsport, one of the only teams to keep their noses completely clean through six practice sessions and warm-ups.
Jaylin Robotham and Matt Chahda experienced their Main Game debuts doing it “old school” with their very own family team brought together for a fabulous tilt at The Great Race.
AUTO ACTION spoke to team principal Amin Chahda in their busy pit lane to get a rundown on how he sees the guys watching today.
“Yeah, look, it was great, our follow-through was good, we had a little problem with the brakes but that was sorted, we’re very thankful that it happened before the big one, so it won’t be a problem today,” Chahda said.
Matt Chahda Autosport’s private wildcard climbing the mountain and exiting the cut
“The boys are doing very well, very well. None of them even touched the grass or the ground or anything else. So hats off to them considering they did a great job. It’s all about finding their comfort level to date so they can get real crack. So get on with the race and the first lap, we’ll see what happens.
“We’re all really proud of how we got here, how we did it and how the two guys handled themselves in very difficult circumstances.”
The mood in the garage was fantastic with Wally ‘Brains’ Story in charge of the team for the first time and their family engineers got on well with the two WAU engineers, turning the #118 Caltex into what has been a consistent polisher so far. .
Matt Chahda also gave his brief take on how they’re building to date and who will be doing the all important first setups coming under the green flag.
Garage #118 Caltex functioned well under the watchful eye of Wally Story
“The car is good, we don’t have too much to work on, I know the weather conditions will be a question mark, but it’s the same for everyone.
“Initially the team suggested I start, but it’s really up to the engineer, it’s his decision, but we feel good about who will be in the car for the first stage.”
Robotham also added his thoughts, saying that his confidence has grown to the point where he finally feels comfortable in these conditions.
“Yesterday went really well, I went out on a wet road, which was good, it was good to practice. The second session was a bit wet so I went out in the wet but then we swapped drivers and Matt did the rest of the session.
“After the wet session, I’m a lot more confident when it’s a wet race. It would have been bad if I hadn’t trained and the race was wet, so it’s good to have it marked and to have experience in both conditions.
“The car is really good. It’s set up well for a race car because we didn’t try to set it up too much for qualifying, so we rolled out with a good race set-up, so it should be good for tomorrow’s race.”
Race 30 – The Bathurst 1000 – (161 laps) 11.15am
AUTO ACTION, live report from The Mountain
For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.
https://autoaction.com.au/2022/10/09/bathurst-118-wildcard-keeping-it-clean
