Nash Morris buoyed by pre-Sandown Carrera Cup test

Nash Morris feels more confident than ever ahead of Round 5 of the Porsche Paytner Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, supporting the Sandown 500 in Melbourne next weekend.

Morris, 21, was fortunate to get some rare testing miles under his belt at the suburban circuit in Melbourne’s south east last week, enjoying a full day of trouble-free dry laps at the 3.1km track.

Driving the Scott Taylor Motorsport Porsche at the test, Morris’ team worked on one lap pace in a bid to maximise qualifying on a circuit that is notoriously hard to pass in this class of racing.

Morris also focused on race pace too, with Saturday afternoon’s all-important 45 minute enduro set to test both the drivers and the cars.

“It’s definitely an advantage to do some laps at the track before the event,” said Morris.

“Hopefully it gives us an upper hand, and correlates to speed over the weekend.

“The test means that you go into Practice 1 knowing where you are braking and where you want to be on the track. It has simply given me some early confidence.”

While Morris was pleased with the test, he is cautious that all of the team’s hard work on developing the car and driver might be thrown out the window, if Melbourne’s unpredictable weather plays its part next weekend.

However, Morris enjoyed his best result of the season in wet conditions at Taupo earlier this year – qualifying fifth and claiming fourth and two third places in mixed conditions.

“There is some weather on the long-range forecast, but I’m very comfortable in these cars in the wet,” Morris said.

“We were fast in the wet at Taupo, so hopefully it rains, we qualify up the front and race with the leaders.”

Morris currently sits ninth in the Pro class standings, and is within striking distance of the top five.

Currently the leading rookie in the class, Morris is pleased with how his season has gone at the halfway point of the season.

“I think we have been pretty good this year,” he said.

“There have been some ups and downs, and we’ve been on for some good results, but there’s been times where I have made a mistake or something has happened that has been out of my control.

“It’s certainly been a learning year for us, but we are having fun and I really love being part of Scott Taylor Motorsport.”

Round 5 of the Porsche Paytner Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship at Sandown will feature three races – two on Saturday and one on Sunday.