Three of the finest from the GRAND-AM and NASCAR family were invited to participate in the prestigious V8 Supercars Gold Coast 600 event this weekend on the streets of Surfers Paradise, and with a long day of Friday practice behind them, the trio spoke of the hard and fast learning curve that presented itself.

“The lap times today weren’t great; my best came at the end of the day on old tires,” said Ricky Taylor, the newest member of the Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP team.

Taylor, who’s sharing a Holden Commodore (GM) with series veteran Greg Ritter, had to quickly learn the daunting 1.8-mile street circuit and the art of driving a large 650hp 4-door sedan after years of excelling in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype category.

“I’m learning so much every single lap,” Taylor continued. “I’ll have new tires to start the race, which should help a lot. A lot of guys put in fast times at the end of the final session on fresh tires, so I look forward to having a set of my own for the first 300km race tomorrow.”

The young Floridian, making his first V8 series start with the Garry Rogers Motorsports team, posted a 1:13:9-second lap in his No. 33 entry, which compared favorably to the fastest first-year Gold Coast 600 driver, ex-F1 racer Nick Heidfeld, who ran a 1:13:1-second lap around the 15-turn course.

NASCAR and Rolex Series veteran Boris Said, returning for his second Gold Coast event at the age of 50, followed Taylor with a 1:14:1-second lap, but fought through a bit of adversity on the way to running his best time with the No. 49 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon.

“I feel like I picked up right where I left off last year,” he said. “First session we were 11th and never put new tires on, I was feeling pretty good. Second session, unfortunately, we broke a power steering rack which nearly sent me into the wall and we lost most of the session. [But] I feel comfortable and ready to race.”

Max Papis, Said’s fellow NASCAR and Rolex Series veteran, was still searching for his comfort zone with a best lap of 1:15.0 seconds as he and the team worked heavily on chassis setup improvements in the sister DJR Ford Falcon.

“I was really proud that the engineer asked my opinion and valued my input,” said Papis of the No. 17 entry. “I’m looking forward to what it’s going to feel [like] tomorrow. There’s going to be a massive drop off in tire performance, and I think it’s really going to be an equalizer. I hope that my NASCAR experience is really going to make a difference tomorrow.”