Austin Cindric will become the first American to compete in the Repco Supercars Championship since IndyCar’s Alexander Rossi teamed up with James Hinchcliffe for the Bathurst 1000 back in 2019. Cindric’s Supercars journey began this week with a ride day at Sandown on Monday, followed by two testing sessions at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia before joining the grid as the 25th entry for the Adelaide Grand Final from November 27–30.
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Before climbing behind the wheel, Cindric took the passenger seat for a hot lap with Cam Waters at Sandown, where he got his first true taste of the Aussie racing landscape. The 25-year-old admitted he was caught off guard by how aggressive the track layout and kerbs were. While he had watched enough onboard to know what he was getting into, a track with a left pit lane still surprised him to some extent.
“I’m like, ‘All right, you know, there’s a little chicane here, and you go up to turn four. A bit of elevation change. Like, I know what’s going on here.’ We go, turn one’s kind of blind until you exit it, right? And I look down the pipe there and I’m like ‘Man, I know he’s about to hit this curb, but I don’t think we should.’”
The Cup driver watched in awe as Waters launched the car over the kerb without unsettling it.
“It’s aggressive, but it didn’t upset the car one bit, and it was fun to see somebody else go to work, and I’ve never been some guys are really rough about riding along or whatever, but I’m sitting there kind of looking at his feet, and what’s he doing, what’s the dash doing in the car, and all that. So, I was definitely very interested in what was happening during all that.”
Cindric joked afterward that someone else might need to ride shotgun with him on Monday, hinting that it could very well rain on his debut day in Supercars. But when it came time to drive, he handled his first taste of the Gen3 machinery without a hitch, logging consistent laps and coming away with a positive impression of the car’s capabilities.
“It drives a lot better,” Cindric told V8 Sleuth. Sharing his review, he said that the car has more overall downforce. Even just looking at the car, it’s lighter, grippier, and just does everything better. Comparing it to his NASCAR Cup car, he pointed out that the current-generation stock car is “a lot more rigid,” adding that he had to talk himself into using the kerb as much as possible in the Supercar.
Still, he admitted the passenger lap setting was an unusual way to get acclimated to a new machine. Despite that, the #2 Team Penske driver embraced the challenge, as he’s more than willing to step outside his comfort zone, whether on ovals, road courses, or halfway around the globe.
