Dylan O’Keeffe is aiming to continue his strong international racing form when he heads to New Zealand for this weekend’s second Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup round at Taupo.
Last time O’Keeffe raced in an offshore Carrera Cup round was in 2017, when the category travelled to Malaysia’s Sepang circuit for an Australia v Asia showdown. On that occasion, he scored his maiden podium finish in the category, and is enjoying the challenge of learning a new circuit.
“I always enjoy visiting different venues – as well as the Malaysia Porsche round, I also did the TCR World Tour round at Zolder in 2020, which was a great experience,” O’Keeffe said.
To prepare himself for this weekend, O’Keeffe has undertaken some extensive simulator training at Thomas Randle’s Dream Simulation facility.
“Thomas has a state-of-the-art simulator setup, with accurate depictions of circuits all over the world and motion technology to enhance the realism of the experience, so it’s a valuable training tool,” O’Keeffe said.
“I’m expecting it to be quite hard to overtake on the Taupo track. The main passing spots are into the first corner and the end of the back straight, where there are some big braking zones, but the rest of the track is complex with lots of direction changes and some medium-speed corners, where it will be hard to follow closely in the Porsche Cup cars due to the aero wash.”
After the Australian Grand Prix, O’Keeffe sits seventh in the series standings, but knows there’s the potential for improved results this weekend.
“At the Grand Prix, qualifying didn’t quite go to plan but our race pace was good,” he said.
“This weekend, the key will be to get on top of the track quickly during practice and then ensure we bank some fast times in qualifying, to mitigate the potential risk of a red flag.”
This weekend’s Carrera Cup action will be shown live on FOX Sports and Kayo.
Carrera Cup Round 2 Schedule
Times are Australian Eastern Standard Time
Friday, 19 April
8:45am – Practice 1 (25 min)
12:40pm – Practice 2 (25 min)
Saturday, 20 April
7:05am – Qualifying (30 min)
11:55am – Race 1 (25 min)
Sunday, 22 April
7:15am – Race 2 (45 min)
11:55am – Race 3 (25 min)
