Steve Charman is hoping that significant changes to his Pizza Hut Ford FG V8 Ute will turn around his misfortune when the Auto One V8 Ute Series protected by Armor All hits the Surfers Paradise street circuit this weekend, 19-21 October 2012.
Charman was plagued by mechanical issues in his debut round in the series at Bathurst only a couple of weeks ago, and believes that changes made during an irregular testing session in the two week turnaround should have resolved the dramas and allow him to compete at his optimum.
We've changed pretty much everything in the car to identify this electrical gremlin, said Charman, we are pretty confident that we've traced the issue back to one intermittent faulty sensor.
These sorts of electrical problems are notoriously hard for teams to debug, but now that it looks like weve fixed it Im looking forward to having another crack at the Series.
The reigning NSW Formula Ford Champion knows that the concrete lined circuit on the streets of Surfers Paradise will come with its own unique challenges with no time to take in the sights.
For me, after a tough debut at Bathurst I'm looking forward to Practice 1 at the Gold Coast 600, and I know the Gold Coast will certainly be challenging, the fans are very close to the action and there are plenty of walls around the place, and we only get the one practice session before qualifying.
Mechanical modifications will not be the only changes for the FG Ute for this weekends round, with The Plank livery undergoing a significant transformation.
We'll be sporting a new custom livery for Pizza Hut which will be fun, said Charman, The Plank was a pretty cool campaign to be a part of, but this new design ties back into the core Pizza Hut branding.
The V8 Utes will hit the Gold Coast in support of the Gold Coast 600 for their first and only practice at 8:20am on Friday (19th October) before Qualifying at 1pm, only one race on Saturday at 8:25am, with race two at 8:45am Sunday, and the final race televised as live on Network Seven at 12:20pm.
It's going to be great to be in the pits with the whole host of international drivers who will be on hand for the Gold Coast 600 V8SC race, said Charman, hopefully some of their talent rubs off on me this weekend.
