V8SDS: Dexion Racing - Evangelou interview

Evangelou: "The longest seven weeks of my life"

Tony Evangelou is itching to get back to business in his Dexion Racing Ford Falcon at Wakefield Park, NSW this weekend.

It has been seven weeks since the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series had its first round in Adelaide, where Evangelou finished sixth. The wait is now over, and Evangelou its raring to go racing.

"It feels like we've waited longer than seven weeks," Evangelou said.

"I'm very pumped for Wakefield, but I wish we didn't have to wait this long between races. It's a big gap. And after this, we have to wait another seven weeks before Queensland Raceway!

"Dexion is champing to get back into it as well. It feels like we haven't raced since last year!" The time away from the race track has allowed Evangelou and the Dexion team to test and tune their ex-Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA. After a test at Winton Raceway last Tuesday, Evangelou says the team is

"the most prepared we've ever been."

"We've slowly got the car more suited to our style. Not that there is anything wrong with the car, it just took us some time to get our head around some of its characteristics. We did our quickest V8 Supercar lap time in that test recently, so we are focusing on that translating to our race performance.

"At the Clipsal 500 meeting, we lacked qualifying speed. We worked on that in the test and came away with some positive results. Qualifying is so crucial with the reverse grid Race 2."

A massive field of Fujitsu V8s will hit the track on Saturday and Sunday. A record 38 V8s will try and qualify for 36 spots on the tight 2.2km layout. Three races will be held on Sunday, highlighted by a reverse grid affair. With so many cars and a group of rookies, Evangelou said that he will be playing a cool and cautious role.

"The racing at the front should be really close. We'll have the potential to pass a lot of cars in the reverse grid race, and you have to take your chances, but there will be a cautious element to the way we approach it."

Howard Racing's Adam Macrow leads the series after one round. Michael Caruso is second, followed by Wayne Wakefield, Nathan Pretty, Mark Porter and Evangelou. The top six are covered by just 60 points. Support races at the Goulburn track include the Carrera Cup Porsche series, V8 Utes and Lotus Trophy.

-dr-