The veteran and the teenager will team up in a Supercheap Auto-backed wildcard entry for this year’s Great Race driving a Triple Eight-run Holden.
They completed their second official test at Queensland Raceway yesterday, Ingall so impressed with their progress that he’s now confident that they’ll qualify for the Top 10 Shootout.
“Today is a bonus, we picked the right state for a motorsport team to be based in,” said Ingall in reference to Victoria and New South Wales currently being in lockdown.
“It’s definitely given us an edge. To be able to come out and test, is an absolute bonus. It’s started to put us back on a level-playing field. We’re looking and feeling a lot more comfortable now.
“Before this all started I think I would’ve said I was around 50 per cent behind the field but at the moment I’d probably say I’m only 15 per cent behind I reckon. By the time we get to our third test day I think I’ll claw a little bit more of that back.
“The more laps the better. Being up here [in Queensland] and being able to do it is an absolute bonus.
“I’d be very surprised if our car isn’t in the Top 10 of qualifying, I’d be really surprised. It may be a bit bold but from what I’ve seen from the kid, he’ll stick it in the 10.
“[Broc has] been lightning and we’re not that far away from each other in race runs. I just need to be close to him in those times and that’s my role.”
The fastest 10 drivers in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session at Bathurst qualify for the Shootout, the single-lap dash on Saturday evening then determining the first five rows of the grid for the 1000-kilometre race.
As mentioned by Ingall, qualifying responsibilities will almost certainly fall to Feeney, who was recently announced as Jamie Whincup’s replacement at T8 next season.
While Feeney stopped short of any Shootout proclamations of his own, he came out of the second test feeling comfortable in the ZB Commodore.
“We made a few ergonomic changes to our set-up [after the first test],” he said. “Russell made a few changes to our seat and so did I, so I suppose we wanted to make sure that today we finalised our comfort.
“The feedback has been really good; we’ve had similar things to say about the inside of the car. Our driving styles are a little bit different but it’s still related to getting the same result.
“[Russell is] doing a great job in getting up to speed and it hasn’t taken any time for him to be back. We drive a little differently but we’ve both been giving similar feedback.
“Ergonomics and how the car drives is probably the biggest thing that I’m helping him on but he knows how to drive a Supercar as well as any co-driver in the field. For him it’s just getting a little bit of rust off and just tuning up a little on the technique which helps these cars go a little bit faster.
“This is all about experience so I can hit the ground running next year. More miles in the V8 is crucial. We’ve been fortunate enough to get these two test days under our belt. They’re incredibly important.
“It’s hard to believe what’s happened these last couple of weeks. It’s been a good year for me but it’s time to continue getting the work done.”