Tekno Gearing Up For New Challenge
Team Sydney is still on the Gold Coast.
The uncertain Covid situation around the NSW-Queensland border has led a slimmer-and-trimmer Jono Webb, the Tekno owner, to delay the full-scale migration of his team to the harbour-side city.
The southern base is complete and ready for its Supercar tenants, but Webb is still waiting to see how coronavirus restrictions play out in the early months of this year’s Supercars championship.
Team Sydney has completed its pre-season testing with Fabian Coulthard and Garry Jacobson, but there will be no move until after the season opens at Bathurst – at the earliest.
“Everything is ready to go there. But we had to make a decision, and the smart decision was to stay in Queensland for the moment,” Webb told Race News.
He is facing other challenges ahead of the Mount Panorama 500, with Fabian Coulthard joining as lead driver and Geoff Slater returning to lead the engineering effort
“We need to get the team to gel. It’s not going to happen overnight, but once these things all click we’ll move on from there.”
“We need to keep improving. Fabs has the ability to do what we need to do,” Webb told Race News.
But he also knows the other side of the situation.
“We need to get him happy,” he said.
Part of that happiness comes from Slater, a highly-respected engineer who has already had a stint at Tekno from 2010.
“He is good. He won Bathurst with us.
“He took off to the US, played in sports cars, but then with a wife and son he decided to come back to Australia.”
Webb drove the Local Legends-backed Commodore at Queensland Raceway and looks fit and focussed for racing, but said his laps at the test day were not a confirmation of a continuation of his co-driving role at Bathurst.
“There wasn’t much to do during Covid so I focussed on my fitness. I’m pretty happy with it. I dropped 12 kilos,” he told Race News.
“I enjoy driving and I’d like to do Bathurst. But if I’m not the right guy for the job then I won’t do it.”
Despite the team’s lacklustre showing last year, Webb is optimistic about the coming year.
“We’d like to go to Bathurst and go out and win but that’s not realistic,” he said.
“We’re aiming for Top 5s to begin and then podiums as the year goes on.
