Hidden Valley – Round 4, Friday Practise
21/5/2004 23:56 (Anthony Goode) -
The V8 Supercars hit the track for the first time today in preparation for this weekends 4th round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship series at Hidden Valley raceway in Darwin.
On the program was a single 35-minute practise session starting at 2:30pm local time. Thanks to overnight rain, the track surface lacked adhesion, and the temperature was a little cooler than usual because of the overcast conditions.
Defending champion and series leader Marcos Ambrose set the ball rolling, posting a 1.11.3512 lap time. This stood for barely a minute however as Mark Skaife became the first driver of the weekend to set a time in the one min10 sec bracket, clocking a 1.10.8735.
He would later improve that by a couple of tenths to 1.10.6531 which placed him 10th overall for the session, the former champ preferring to chase a perfect a race set up in the lead HRT Commodore.
Over the next few minutes, Steven Richards, Russell Ingall, Jason Bright and Ambrose all had turns at the top of the leader-board before a fired up Craig Lowndes shot to the top with a 1.10.5734.
Later in the session he whittled that down to a 1.10.4518, which put him in a competitive 4th at the end of the session. FPR teammate Glen Seton also showed good pace to record a 1.10.5884 to end today’s practise in 8th; a promising start to the weekend for the troubled factory team.
20 minutes into the session Greg Murphy took the number 1 spot aboard his Kmart Racing Commodore with a 1.10.5116 time. This was as quick as Murphy would go for the session, however the time was still good enough for 7th overall.
The other Kmart Commodore of Rick Kelly was in 3rd at the end of the session thanks to a best time of 1.10.3932. For a team that had yet to race a VY Commodore at Hidden Valley, 3rd and 7th was a good showing.
Round 3 winner Jason Bright briefly appeared at the top of the chart, but ended up settling for 5th with a best time of 1.10.4560. PWR teammate Paul Weel sits in 13th on 1.10.7177, PWR is also using the VY at Hidden Valley for the first time this season.
With 10 minutes to go Lowndes was on top, but he was bumped off by the number #22 HRT Commodore of Todd Kelly, who put down a 1.10.1898, three tenths quicker than anyone else had done up to that point.
Kelly later improved to a 1.10.0535 near the end of the session using green tyres, good enough for the top spot at the end of the day.
A notable performance also by the Castrol Perkins Commodore of Paul Dumbrell, who finished the day with the 6th quickest time, while team leader Steven Richards sits in 11th place.
Hidden Valley marks the return to the series of WPS racings second driver Mark Noske, who posted the 14th best time. A positive start to a vital weekend, as Noske needs to leave Darwin in the top 32 of the championship standings to be granted a starting spot in Perth.
On Monday Orrcon Racing driver Mark Winterbottom was at the Ludwilla Primary school in Darwin talking to the students about road safety. Today, he was the quickest Hidden Valley rookie, ending up 19th, only two places behind his experienced team mate Jason Bargwanna.
The other two were having a tougher time of it however, with DJR's Warren Luff in 30th place, and Dale Brede 32nd and last thanks in part to a minor oil leak in his Team Dynamik Commodore.
With the top 23 cars within a second of each other, it promises to be a hot weekend of V8 Supercar action at the top end of Australia.
Top Ten
1) Holden Racing Team Todd Kelly 1.10.0535
2) Pirtek Racing Marcos Ambrose + 0.2767
3) Kmart Racing Team Rick Kelly + 0.3397
4) Ford Performance racing Craig Lowndes + 0.3983
5) PWR Performance Products Jason Bright + 0.4025
6) Castrol Perkins Motorsport Paul Dumbrell + 0.4250
7) Kmart Racing Team Greg Murphy + 0.4581
8) Ford Performance racing Glen Seton + 0.5349
9) Caltex Havoline Race Team Russell Ingall + 0.5598
10) Holden Racing Team Mark Skaife + 0.5996
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