Caltex heats up the track at Bathurst
October 5th 2007 02:31
The four Caltex backed Fords are looking good for this weekend’s Bathurst 1000 race at Mount Panorama. The cars, driven by Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, Russell Ingall and Luke Youlden. James Courtney and David Besnard, and Richard Lyons and Allan Simonsen all posted practice session times yesterday that places them within the top ten fastest so far this weekend.
Steven Johnson and Will Davison’s #17 Falcon was fastest in practice today, ahead of Rick Kelly and Garth Tander’s #16 Commodore and Winterbottom and Steven Richards’ #6 Falcon.
Leading the Caltex contingent was James Courtney who set the fourth fastest time of the day, mirroring his performance at last month’s Sandown 500 where he started the race on the front row of the grid.
“We had a few things to iron out with the Jeld-Wen car today during practice,” said Courtney. “The car had good speed and it is definitely better than last year, when we finished on the podium, so we feel pretty confident after the first session.
“David (Besnard) continued to do a great job setting fast and consistent laps.
“We did put new tyres on but we didn’t get a chance to use them when I got held up by (Mark) Winterbottom when he ran out fuel up on Skyline. The car is very comfortable to drive and there is a lot more time left in me so we expect a good show tomorrow.”
Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, accompanied by their new chassis, rounded up seventh fastest for the day’s practice, the reigning champions showing promising speed consistently throughout the day in the #888 Team Vodafone Ford, even after they elected to remain on old tyres near the end of the session when most other teams had changed to new tyres.
“The car was fantastic,” said Lowndes. “It responded very well to the changes we made and improved every time we went out on track.
“We only used one set of tyres as we wanted to see what the car would be like in race simulation when the tyres started to go off and I have to say the results were very positive.”
“If there was ever any doubt about this car it was eliminated after the first lap,” stated Whincup.
“I probably got a little too confident out there during my run and had a very close encounter with the wall at McPhillamy where I scraped the rims and the driver’s side mirror.
“Both Craig and I have a lot of confidence ahead of tomorrow's qualifying, we were only beaten today by cars on better tyres.”
Settling into eighth fastest for the day was the ever consistent Russell Ingall and his partner Luke Youlden in the #9 Caltex Falcon. Another driver pairing who elected to remain on old tyres throughout the session, Ingall and Youlden are now focussing on fine-tuning their race setup, ready for qualifying today.
“The car was reasonable out of the gate, we had a bit of tuning up to do on it which we are still proceeding with,” said Ingall. “We’re not aiming to get into the limelight too early; instead we are just working away at getting the car setup so it is comfortable to drive on used tyres.
“You could probably say we are following around the same strategy as Triple Eight have over the past half a season, where we are not necessarily worried about having the quickest car in qualifying and instead looking towards the race. It has paid off for them so far, so we are going to look at going down that path.
“We (Ingall/Youlden and Lowndes/Whincup) were probably the only two out there today that didn’t go out on new tyres, no matter what was said in the press conference all of them were out there on new, or near to new tyres. Going on that, you can pick up a lot of time at Bathurst on new rubber due to the length of the track, with the circuit being double the length of some of the others we visit.
“All in all we are pretty happy, we will worry about tyres when we get to the race, but at the moment we are just so conscious of race setup and getting things right in that area. We want to look at leading the last lap on Sunday from the first lap, so will be working to get things right for that.”
The final Caltex backed pairing of Lyons and Simonsen rounded off an impressive practice session for the two part-time V8 Supercar drivers in tenth fastest, putting them on a par with experienced drivers such as Skaife, Winterbottom, Courtney, Lowndes and Ingall.
“We had a great session,” said Lyons. “Both Allan and I got plenty of laps which is very important at this track. I am finding things a lot easier this year and I am also more confident to push the car.”
“We had a very productive session where we kept making good steps in terms of setup,” said Simonsen. The car speed is very good and we will keep moving in the direction we are going with setup.”
Qualifying will be held this afternoon at around 2pm and can be seen on Channel Seven’s coverage of the event.
Steven Johnson and Will Davison’s #17 Falcon was fastest in practice today, ahead of Rick Kelly and Garth Tander’s #16 Commodore and Winterbottom and Steven Richards’ #6 Falcon.
Leading the Caltex contingent was James Courtney who set the fourth fastest time of the day, mirroring his performance at last month’s Sandown 500 where he started the race on the front row of the grid.
“We had a few things to iron out with the Jeld-Wen car today during practice,” said Courtney. “The car had good speed and it is definitely better than last year, when we finished on the podium, so we feel pretty confident after the first session.
“David (Besnard) continued to do a great job setting fast and consistent laps.
“We did put new tyres on but we didn’t get a chance to use them when I got held up by (Mark) Winterbottom when he ran out fuel up on Skyline. The car is very comfortable to drive and there is a lot more time left in me so we expect a good show tomorrow.”
Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, accompanied by their new chassis, rounded up seventh fastest for the day’s practice, the reigning champions showing promising speed consistently throughout the day in the #888 Team Vodafone Ford, even after they elected to remain on old tyres near the end of the session when most other teams had changed to new tyres.
“The car was fantastic,” said Lowndes. “It responded very well to the changes we made and improved every time we went out on track.
“We only used one set of tyres as we wanted to see what the car would be like in race simulation when the tyres started to go off and I have to say the results were very positive.”
“If there was ever any doubt about this car it was eliminated after the first lap,” stated Whincup.
“I probably got a little too confident out there during my run and had a very close encounter with the wall at McPhillamy where I scraped the rims and the driver’s side mirror.
“Both Craig and I have a lot of confidence ahead of tomorrow's qualifying, we were only beaten today by cars on better tyres.”
Lowndes and Whincup celebrating last year's victory
Settling into eighth fastest for the day was the ever consistent Russell Ingall and his partner Luke Youlden in the #9 Caltex Falcon. Another driver pairing who elected to remain on old tyres throughout the session, Ingall and Youlden are now focussing on fine-tuning their race setup, ready for qualifying today.
Russell Ingall with his Caltex branded car.
“The car was reasonable out of the gate, we had a bit of tuning up to do on it which we are still proceeding with,” said Ingall. “We’re not aiming to get into the limelight too early; instead we are just working away at getting the car setup so it is comfortable to drive on used tyres.
“You could probably say we are following around the same strategy as Triple Eight have over the past half a season, where we are not necessarily worried about having the quickest car in qualifying and instead looking towards the race. It has paid off for them so far, so we are going to look at going down that path.
“We (Ingall/Youlden and Lowndes/Whincup) were probably the only two out there today that didn’t go out on new tyres, no matter what was said in the press conference all of them were out there on new, or near to new tyres. Going on that, you can pick up a lot of time at Bathurst on new rubber due to the length of the track, with the circuit being double the length of some of the others we visit.
“All in all we are pretty happy, we will worry about tyres when we get to the race, but at the moment we are just so conscious of race setup and getting things right in that area. We want to look at leading the last lap on Sunday from the first lap, so will be working to get things right for that.”
The final Caltex backed pairing of Lyons and Simonsen rounded off an impressive practice session for the two part-time V8 Supercar drivers in tenth fastest, putting them on a par with experienced drivers such as Skaife, Winterbottom, Courtney, Lowndes and Ingall.
“We had a great session,” said Lyons. “Both Allan and I got plenty of laps which is very important at this track. I am finding things a lot easier this year and I am also more confident to push the car.”
“We had a very productive session where we kept making good steps in terms of setup,” said Simonsen. The car speed is very good and we will keep moving in the direction we are going with setup.”
Qualifying will be held this afternoon at around 2pm and can be seen on Channel Seven’s coverage of the event.
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