Jayden Ojeda and a host of young guns were handed the keys to Gen3 machines at Thursday’s Supercars test at Queensland Raceway.
Ojeda, who was recently confirmed to continue at Matt Stone Racing as a co driver alongside Jack Le Brocq, had his first steer of the #34 Chevrolet Camaro.
But there were also a host of young guns looking to show what they have got in a bid to land one of the few coveted co-driver spots remaining on the grid.
Currently spots are available at Blanchard Racing Team, PremiAir Racing and Matt Stone Racing, with significant pointers being made at Queensland Raceway.
With PremiAir’s preferred option of S5000 winning machine Joey Mawson not allowed due to the licensing system, both Kurt Kostecki and Matt Chahda emerged as contenders to share the #23 Camaro with Tim Slade after cutting laps at the “Paperclip”.
The driver to handle Cameron Hill’s #35 MSR Camaro is also up for discussion, but a new contender has emerged with Jaylyn Robotham seen testing the car at Queensland Raceway.
Having driven together in a Caltex wildcard at Bathurst last year, Chahda and Robotham find themselves trying to get separate enduro drives.
A PremiAir opportunity is also a massive chance for Kostecki to rebound after losing his full-time seat with Tickford on the eve of the 2023 season.
The confirmed co-driver for MSR, Ojeda, also enjoyed his first steer of a Gen3 machine on Thursday.
Whilst admitting there is still a lot of focus placed on main-game driver Jack Le Brocq, the Bathurst 6 Hour winner said the track time was a huge boost ahead of Sandown.
“It was my first steer of a Gen3 Camaro, so it was awesome to get a few laps in,” Ojeda said.
“It is still quite early in the season, so most of the day is about Jack and obviously they are still progressing very fast with the new car.
“But it was good to get a taste of what Gen3 is like and get an understanding of what they are talking about later in the year when discussing set-up direction.
“It was nice getting laps early in the year to get an understanding of the car and then you can play situations in your head, which can only be beneficial later on because having the extra round at Sandown means there will be more pressure on us co drivers.”
The co drivers will be in the thick of the action at the Sandown 500 come September 15-17.
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