Tim Slade has again demonstrated his pace and fighting spirit after climbing his way from last place to 10th after being caught up in an incident at turn one, on the first lap of Race 13 at Hidden Valley.
This morning’s qualifying session was disappointing for the SBR team with all three cars starting outside the top 10 for the 69 lap race. But determination saw Slade, along with teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Lee Holdsworth, make up numerous places throughout the race. SBR finished with two cars in the top 10.
The #9 SP Tools Racing team was the best placed SBR car at the conclusion of the 200km race, crossing the finish line in 7th after starting in 13th. Slade started three places behind him in 16th, but after getting caught up in the carnage at turn one, found himself back in 24th position on the first lap.
The #4 IRWIN Racing team had a strong start and although Holdsworth had similar tyre problems to yesterday and struggled for the remainder of the race, he still managed to move up seven places from 19th to 12th.
A safety car on lap 9 saw all SBR cars pit early and at the re-start Slade was almost collected in another incident which unfolded right in front of him. Luckily he managed to avoid it and begin his fight back.
The #47 Lucky 7 Racing driver left his biggest move until the final lap where he jumped two places to finish strongly. Holdsworth also made one last charge on the final lap to sneak into 12th. Improvements made to the SP Tools Falcon at the final pit stop gave van Gisbergen enough pace to pass Reynolds on lap 68 which moved him into his finishing position.
After six V8 Supercar events van Gisbergen still sits in 5th, Holdsworth in 6th and Slade in 7th.
Lee Holdsworth – Car #4 IRWIN Racing:
“I’m disappointed with the whole weekend really. It wouldn’t have mattered if we did qualify well, we just didn’t have a good race car. It was just wearing the fronts our before the rears and you have to turn the car on the throttle which in turn hurts the rears as well. So all round the tyres were going away, but the fronts were going away worse.”
“We had quite good pace in say the first 10 laps but once the fronts wore out we were a sitting duck which is pretty frustrating. We are going to have to do a bit of homework.”
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #9 SP Tools Racing:
“Our car in qualifying just didn’t seem to like the new tyre and it didn’t really pick up a massive amount of grip which meant we were light years away from the fastest time.”
“During the race the car seemed not that good on the hards but we made a few spots at the start. How we went in the last stint is what we needed to be in the first stint. We can change roll centre throughout the race and we did and made the car better, but we needed that at the start of the race not the end.”
“We were half a minute off the leader which is pretty disappointing but 7th is not bad. Two 7th places for the weekend is good Championship points, but we need to get our car good from the start.”
Tim Slade – Car #47 Lucky 7 Racing:
“In qualifying our car definitely wasn’t as good as yesterday, but I stuffed up and lost a tenth and a half or two tenths on the corner on my best set of tyres. So we should have probably been up closer to the top 10 going into the race, although I don’t think we would have been as high as what we were yesterday.”
“It was a bit of a struggle in the race, we got a really good start but I knew I was going to be a bit vulnerable around the outside of the first corner. Then I saw two people spear by me and I thought ‘you beauty I’ll wait for them go and I’ll duck down the inside of them’, but then I got hit about 20 times after that. Once I turned around I was just praying that no one else hit me and from then on we were behind the eight ball. It was great to get back to 10th.”
“It was really hard to know whether to push today and try and get the guys in front or conserve and get them when their tyres went off. We made a change on one of the sets of softs with the roll centre and it was the wrong way and we struggled big time in that second last stint. We reversed that in the last stint and got a bit of pace back.”
“It was pleasing to get back to 10th, for sure, after being stone motherless last on the first lap, first corner. It’s good points towards the Championship.”
Sky City Triple Crown Darwin Race 13 – RESULTS:
1 888 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes 01:29:04.4833
2 1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup 01:29:05.4210
3 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Mark Winterbottom 01:29:20.7720
4 34 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso 01:29:21.1985
5 14 Lockwood Racing Fabian Coulthard 01:29:26.1714
6 6 Trading Post FPR Ford Will Davison 01:29:32.4473
7 9 SP Tools Racing Shane Van Gisbergen 01:29:35.8755
8 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team David Reynolds 01:29:40.6670
9 2 Holden Racing Team Garth Tander 01:29:52.2907
10 47 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade 01:29:56.7033
11 22 Holden Racing Team James Courtney 01:29:58.7140
12 4 Irwin Racing Lee Holdsworth 01:30:00.7711
Sky City Triple Crown Darwin Qualifying – RESULTS:
1 6 Trading Post FPR Ford Will Davison 1:08.5004
2 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Mark Winterbottom 1:08.6685
3 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team David Reynolds 1:08.8454
4 1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup 1:08.8620
5 34 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso 1:08.9841
6 888 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes 1:09.0273
7 19 Tekno Autosports Jonathon Webb 1:09.0668
8 14 Lockwood Racing Fabian Coulthard 1:09.0931
9 8 Team BOC Jason Bright 1:09.1243
10 91 Tekno Autosports Michael Patrizi 1:09.1793
13 9 SP Tools Racing Shane Van Gisbergen 1:09.2052
16 47 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade 1:09.2464
19 4 Irwin Racing Lee Holdsworth 1:09.2823
