A Dominant Jones Takes Pole Position In V8 Supercar Opener
21/2/2004 18:47 (Press Release) -
Andrew Jones aboard his BOC Gases Ford Falcon has dominated today’s practice and qualifying sessions during the opening round of the 2004 Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Championship at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park, clinching pole position by a commanding 3 tenths of a second.
Jones, who just today rolled out his newly designed BOC sponsored Falcon, was in control from the very start, setting the fastest time in this morning’s first practice session. His superiority continuing right through to the second practice and into qualifying.
“I’m wrapped. My BOC Falcon has been great and I knew from this morning that we had a great car package. It was just a matter of me doing my job and from there I thought we would have a good chance of getting pole,” said Jones.
“We’ve been working so hard in the last week getting the car ready for this weekend and we wouldn’t have been anywhere near as prepared if it wasn’t for the support we have received from our sponsors, especially BOC and Sime Tyres. Getting pole position is just a small way that we can return the faith,” Jones added.
“I’d also like to dedicate the pole to my Dad, Kim [Jones] and to Brad [Jones]. Their unbelievably tireless work in the past few months to get sponsorship for my campaign in 2004 is the only reason that I’m on the front row of the grid.”
With temperatures in Goulburn topping 40c degrees, many of the drivers were affected with the extreme heat. For Andrew Jones, it was a timely test for some enormous training that he has been putting in during the off-season.
“Since the start of the year, I have been working with the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) on my fitness and coping with heat. The guys [at the VIS] are amazing at what they know about the human body and what they have been teaching me has been a huge plus today.”
“I know there were some drivers that didn’t perform as well as they would have liked because of the heat, so it goes to show how important my work has been,” Jones said further.
Tomorrow will see the might of the 600 horsepower V8 Supercars take to the track for three races. Race one, a 20 minute sprint, race two a full reverse grid 20 minute dash and race three almost double the distance and time at 35 minutes.
“We’re feeling pretty confident going into tomorrow’s races. Our BOC Falcon has certainly shown today that it has been consistently fast, probably more so than many of the other teams. If I can drive well and stay out of trouble, we should end up with a good result,” Jones concluded.
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