With a best season finish of third, he’s well placed with three rounds to go including this weekends event, holding onto second 46 points off Harri Jones and 10 points up on David Wall.

With such a tight field, and David Russell and Aaron love not far off in fourth and fifth, any advantage at this stage is worth banking on.

O’Keeffe believes the Melbourne weather – that’s tipped to be a bit of everything – will give him and his GWR Australia team that advantage at Sandown.

The last time O’Keeffe put a machine through its paces at Sandown was last month, where he ran his Porsche 992 GT3 Cup car in all conditions, such as he’ll most likely face this weekend.

O’Keeffe will be suiting up for an assualt on the Carrera Cup title come Sandown on the weekend

“Normally if it rains on a test day, we’d be complaining, but in this case we decided to make the most of it and complete some sessions in the wet, and it actually turned out to be very useful,” O’Keeffe said.

  “We learned a lot about how this new car behaves in the wet and the type of setup changes we need to make to maximise its performance. It gives us a lot of confidence that we can be on the front foot if it rains.”

After capturing three podium finishes over the last three rounds, O’keeffe’s consistency has placed him well in contention for the hotly contested championship.

“We made up a lot of ground on the championship leader at Tailem Bend, so we need to keep that momentum going and set ourselves up for a big attack on the title in the last two rounds at Bathurst and the Gold Coast.”

Alongside his Carrera Cup assault, O’Keeffe will also find himself in the Subway PremiAir Commodore for Friday’s co-driver sessions, the only in-event programme before the Bathurst 1000, where he will share the car with James Golding.

“I’m looking forward to some more laps in the Supercar, getting myself more comfortable in the car before heading to Bathurst,” O’Keeffe said of the Friday session.

  “Just like the Carrera Cup test day, if there’s wet weather during that session, we’ll be treating it as an advantage, because it will give me the chance to get some wet seat time in the Supercar.”

O’Keeffe will take to the Bathurst 1000 with PremiAir’s subway Commodore

O’Keeffe’s best Bathurst 1000 finish was a P11 in a Mustang Mk6 alongside Andre Heimgartner for Kelly Racing in 2020.

The co-driver sessions will run at 15:20 on the Friday Afternoon, and O’Keefffe will be behind the wheel of Porsche at 14:45 on the Saturday for Race 1, and 9:20am and 14:20 on Sunday for Races 2 and 3.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action.

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