Smiths Trucks Amongst The Leaders During Qualifying
19/3/2004 16:58 (Press Release) -
Smith's Trucks Racing was amongst the leaders during the Qualifying Session for the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series Round Two with its #70 Smith's Trucks Commodore, driven by Alan Gurr, lining up on the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s first race.
Gurr Qualified in 5th as the highest-placed Holden, continuing a pattern established by the Victorian privateer team last season where they regularly outperformed “factory supported” Holden teams.
Gurr said, “Less than half a second separated the top five cars so there wasn’t much in it”. On being the fastest Holden, but bested by Falcons he added, “At the previous Round at Wakefield Park the Fords Qualified well but our Holden found its feet during the racing when it mattered.
“Our set of performances today were good in that we moved forward each time we were out on the track. The early improvements were from me settling into the swing of things but we found some time in the car as the sessions wore on”.
Lee Holdsworth in the team’s second car, the #72 Smith's Trucks Commodore, performed strongly to Qualify comfortably inside the top half of the 29-car field, in 13th place.
The two preceding Practice Sessions were especially valuable for rookie Holdsworth in only his second-ever V8 Supercar drive, as he explained, “The first time out on the track had a few intimidating moments but I quickly learned the layout as the improvement in Practice Session lap times showed.
"In Qualifying I dropped my lap times into the 1min: 25-second zone and hoped this would put me in the top ten, but I am only a couple of places outside this.”
Team Manager Ryan McLeod was satisfied with today’s results; “We are up the pointy end of the field and were only running our “second-string” engine today. Both cars did everything right and mechanically they are in good shape heading into the races. Both our drivers did everything right too and had no “offs”, and being the fastest Holden showed that no-one could have done a better job than Alan today.”
This Round of the 2004 Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series is run as part of the support races for the V8 Supercar Clipsal 500, South Australia’s largest sporting event. The reverse grid starting procedure for the Konica Minolta races has been abandoned for this event in recognition of the treachery that this “concrete canyon” holds, the likelihood of collisions deemed to be too high. Two races, on Friday at 6.35pm, and Saturday 9.45am will decide the Round.
Release Date: 18/03/2004
Smiths Trucks Racing
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