V8 Supercars ... the competition hots up
October 9th 2007 07:42
What a battle is ahead.
After last weekend’s amazing race which saw Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup take out the season’s biggest race, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama, the championship has really hotted up with the top four drivers all looking forward to the last four rounds and eventual victory.
But victory can only be claimed by one driver … so who’s still in the race?
Top of the table after Bathurst is Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup with 461 points, closely followed by his more experienced team mate Craig Lowndes with 445 points. A disastrous Bathurst weekend saw Toll HSV driver Rick Kelly and his team mate Garth Tander drop from the top two positions in the championship table to third (443 points) and fourth (434 points) respectively.
It’s amazing what a difference one race can make. Before Bathurst weekend the battle seemed to revolve around the Toll drivers who were intent upon sharing first place on the table, each driver spending a week or two there before yielding to the other.
Not any more.
Team Vodafone, after nipping at Toll’s heels for so long, are now the dominant players with only four rounds to go.
Toll HSV were devastated after last weekend’s disaster with both cars having to retire after brake problems proved insurmountable for the team less than thirty laps from the finish.
Both cars were stricken down with the same problem; boiling brake fluid in the rear brake lines. Engineers were unsure of the exact cause of the problem but they plan to take the components back to their Melbourne workshop to try to find the culprit.
The team has never experienced this problem before, which surfaced early in the race, maybe a bad batch of brake fluid(?). Despite repeated pit stops to bleed the brake fluid and change pads, the problems steadily got worse until they were forced to retire both cars.
Tander was driving when the message went out to garage the car and was "gutted" when the decision was made. “When it is not your day, it is not your day,” he said. Ricko had a tyre blow out, we had the brake issue, then the medical car hit me while I was in pit lane. It certainly wasn’t going to be our day. It is disappointing for this weekend. Bathurst is always something you want to win. It is pretty gutting for everyone on the team. But there’s still a long way to go in the championship. We were very good at Indy last year so we are looking forward to that now.”
According to Rick Kelly, the #1 Commodore was “a jet”, but the brake problem ruined the race for them all. “It is sad,” he stated, “we had a fantastic car. If we had had the brakes package to match it we would have been up the front. We just have to work hard in the championship and get it back. I was happy to walk away from the car after the blow-out at the Chase. At the end of Conrod, I looked down and saw I was doing 294km/h, and when I looked up the tyre just went. I was happy to get back to the pits and sit down for a bit.”
The same problem forced the early exit for Radisich and Baird in the second Toll HSV car which has forced the team to head back to their base in Melbourne and lick their wounds. Changes obviously have to be made before the next round on the Gold Coast later this month.
After last weekend’s amazing race which saw Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup take out the season’s biggest race, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama, the championship has really hotted up with the top four drivers all looking forward to the last four rounds and eventual victory.
But victory can only be claimed by one driver … so who’s still in the race?
Top of the table after Bathurst is Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup with 461 points, closely followed by his more experienced team mate Craig Lowndes with 445 points. A disastrous Bathurst weekend saw Toll HSV driver Rick Kelly and his team mate Garth Tander drop from the top two positions in the championship table to third (443 points) and fourth (434 points) respectively.
It’s amazing what a difference one race can make. Before Bathurst weekend the battle seemed to revolve around the Toll drivers who were intent upon sharing first place on the table, each driver spending a week or two there before yielding to the other.
Not any more.
Team Vodafone, after nipping at Toll’s heels for so long, are now the dominant players with only four rounds to go.
Toll HSV were devastated after last weekend’s disaster with both cars having to retire after brake problems proved insurmountable for the team less than thirty laps from the finish.
Both cars were stricken down with the same problem; boiling brake fluid in the rear brake lines. Engineers were unsure of the exact cause of the problem but they plan to take the components back to their Melbourne workshop to try to find the culprit.
The team has never experienced this problem before, which surfaced early in the race, maybe a bad batch of brake fluid(?). Despite repeated pit stops to bleed the brake fluid and change pads, the problems steadily got worse until they were forced to retire both cars.
Tander was driving when the message went out to garage the car and was "gutted" when the decision was made. “When it is not your day, it is not your day,” he said. Ricko had a tyre blow out, we had the brake issue, then the medical car hit me while I was in pit lane. It certainly wasn’t going to be our day. It is disappointing for this weekend. Bathurst is always something you want to win. It is pretty gutting for everyone on the team. But there’s still a long way to go in the championship. We were very good at Indy last year so we are looking forward to that now.”
According to Rick Kelly, the #1 Commodore was “a jet”, but the brake problem ruined the race for them all. “It is sad,” he stated, “we had a fantastic car. If we had had the brakes package to match it we would have been up the front. We just have to work hard in the championship and get it back. I was happy to walk away from the car after the blow-out at the Chase. At the end of Conrod, I looked down and saw I was doing 294km/h, and when I looked up the tyre just went. I was happy to get back to the pits and sit down for a bit.”
The same problem forced the early exit for Radisich and Baird in the second Toll HSV car which has forced the team to head back to their base in Melbourne and lick their wounds. Changes obviously have to be made before the next round on the Gold Coast later this month.
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