Erebus Academy drivers Jaylyn Robotham and Reef McCarthy are both looking to make gains as they head into the second event of the Townsville double-header this weekend.

With both drivers having little to no experience at the Townsville circuit, Robotham and McCarthy went into last weekend’s event with similar expectations but left with very different outcomes. 

Robotham’s weekend was over before it truly begun in the Super2 Series, after a slip into the wall at Turn 8 saw significant damage to his #999 Commodore in opening practice.

“It was unfortunate but I knew what I had done and it was a pretty simple mistake so I can learn from it and come back stronger,” Robotham said. 

“It’s really important to put it all behind you so it doesn’t impact your confidence moving forward.

“We’re pretty fortunate to have Erebus backing us Image boys, they’re all very knowledgeable and without them we wouldn’t be back on track this weekend so I’m very grateful.”

Although Robotham missed out on a fair chunk of the action last weekend, he believes it won’t be a disadvantage heading into this weekend’s event.

“I spent the weekend looking through the data and footage with Jordan (Boys) and still going into the debriefs so I’m not going into this weekend completely unprepared,” he said.

“The boys at Image and Erebus have been working hard so the car will be ready to go for Saturday.”

For McCarthy, the weekend proved to be far more positive, with the 17-year-old claiming his first Super3 podium finish on Saturday, followed by another podium on Sunday.

“I was really happy with Saturday’s qualifying, I think I got the most out of myself in the car in that session,” McCarthy said.

“It was an awesome feeling to finally get on the podium, especially after Bathurst where I probably had the pace but I just didn’t quite optimise it and I made a couple of mistakes.”

Last weekend marked McCarthy’s Townsville debut and saw him take out two third-place positions with his pace steadily improving across the three day event. 

“I found the track pretty tough to get used to, it’s the first track I’ve been to where I’ve really had to hit the curbs to get the best times” he said.

“I struggled a bit with getting the confidence to have the car on two wheels and have it sideways but by the end of the weekend I felt like I was able to adapt to the track and I was slowly catching the front two.”

With his confidence levels increased, McCarthy is looking forward to this weekend’s event with goals of another podium finish.

This weekend’s WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint will see both Academy drivers tackle two 12-lap races across Saturday and Sunday.

Practice kicks off at 8:50am local time this Saturday.