Clipsal’s Busyboy!
26/3/2004 20:05 (Press Release) -
Chance of a Lifetime and Speedy Wheels driver Jamie Cartwright had an incredibly Busy weekend driving both the AU Falcons in the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar and The Busy Boy Aussie Racing Car for his personal sponsor Busy Wear, at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
“What a fantastic weekend that was “ said Jamie, “ I was literally getting out of one car and into another”.
With a hectic schedule over the first few days, Jamie jumped back and forth between the Chance of a Lifetime V8 Supercar and the Aussie Racing Car, which kept two teams on their toes, getting both cars ready for each practice or qualifying session.
“Over the past few weeks the Chance of a Lifetime crew have been working hard to get the car ready for Adelaide, and with all that work I finally got to really experience what everyone raves about”.
Coming to grips with the car around the Adelaide circuit was going to be a big ask, but after the end of practice and qualifying the car was in position 27th on the grid, to start race 1 on Friday night.
“We played around with different setup’s to try to get some more speed out of the car, but could not find that extra couple of seconds to start further up the grid.
RACE #1
Jamie had gained 7 places in just 6 laps and was making good progress, until a run between he and Tim Gordon at turn 6 saw Jaime have to come into the pits for some work on the car. Jamie rejoined the race to finish in 18th, and saw him finish in front of Wakefield Park winner Alan Gurr, as well as Mundy, D’Alberto, Tilley and Scifleet. It was in this race that Jamie recorded his fastest lap of the weekend.
RACE #2
With a change to the normal format in Race 2, where it is normally a full reverse grid race, Jamie started from 20th position. It was in this race that he found how unforgiving the street circuits could be. Coming into turn 9, Jamie got caught in an incident between two other competitors, and sustained quite a lot of damage to the front left of the car. The team worked on car in pitlane, but Jamie lost 4 laps because of this. However he did finish in front of Wakefield, Mundy and Andy Jones.
Many of the teams sustained major damage to their cars, and our thoughts go out to all those teams who now have to work really hard to get these cars to Winton for our next round in April.
Special thanks to Speedy Wheels for there generous In car camera, there should be some great footage from there, which will be shown on Speedweek, this Sunday the 28th, on Channel 10.
AUSSIE LEGEND
“What a great car to drive this one is, it is so very different jumping out of the big AU into the little AU, but I came to terms with it quite easy, and actually had some good qualifying results”, said Jamie.
Jamie Qualified the “Lets get busy” legend into 6th position to start Race 1, unfortunately mechanical problems saw Jamie having to park the car, whilst he was in 3rd position.
Because of the DNF in race 1 and the way the points are calculated Jamie started Race 2 back in 35th, and finished in 12th.
Sunday morning was the last race for the weekend, which all came to an abrupt end on lap 2. Going into turn 5, he was hit and there was too much damage to continue the race. The competitor who hit him, was given a $1000 fine and lost all his points.
“It is so disheartening to have a race finish this way, but someone else’s error, but I proved that I can be a podium finisher, so we will go to Eastern Creek, and give it our best shot. The difference between a street circuit and a permanent track is there is more room for error, and if you get hit it does not always mean the end of your race, when on a permanent track”, Jamie said.
Keep watching Trackside to see all the excitement that these cars bring.
To all those Double Pass winners from the 5DN Radio competition who joined in with the team over the 2 days it was a pleasure to meet you.
We also want to thank San Giorgio Pizzeria, who supplied out team the best meals over the whole 4 days. If you are in Adelaide, be sure to go and see George, Domouit, and the boys.
Hope to see you all at the Winton Round, until then ……Lets Get Busy!!!!!!!!!
Release Date: 24/03/2004
Cartwright Racing
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