Radisich Poised To Take On The Resurfaced Barbagallo Circuit
8/6/2004 23:24 (Press Release) -
Paul Radisich driver of the Team Betta Electrical car #88 is keen to experience the new track surface at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in round 5 of the V8 Supercar Championship this weekend. Radisich has had certain success at the circuit achieving pole position and a win in 2001.
“I’m looking forward to savouring another results driven weekend in this, the 5th round in this year’s series” – said Radisich.
“I’m particularly keen to experience the new hot mix surface, I here it is considerably faster and easier on tyres so that will change all previous data collected by the teams”.
“I guess we will all be starting with a clean sheet of paper and hopefully set some new records into the bargain” – Radisich commented.
“The previous surface was very hard on tyres, it was quite coarse with the sand settling in the porous surface, which in turn made it impossible to gain grip anywhere around the circuit”.
“The circuit is quite short at 2.41 km, with the current lap record 57.9950 being held by Craig Lowndes in a Holden since 1996, with Mark Skaife still retaining the qualifying record he set in 2000 with a time of 56.9709, so it will be very interesting to compare the times from this weekend’s qualifying and shoot out events”.
“Again the team has done an excellent job in preparing our cars and we all look forward to gaining some comprehensive results here to launch us back into back into contention within the championship points table”.
Max Wilson second of the Team Betta Electrical drivers in car #888 said “I like the Barbagallo circuit, I have only raced here twice previously, with my best race result being 12th, although in saying that, I’m confident of dramatically improving on that result this weekend”.
“The car is getting faster with each round this year, I think with the new surface here, I will really be able to get the power down earlier and set a cracking pace over this weekends three 42 lap races” - commented Wilson.
“We have experienced steady improvement in the cars performance during the first four rounds of this season, with the best still to come”.
“Our engine development program is still on track, with results coming through within the next round or perhaps two” – concluded Wilson.
CIRCUIT FACTS – BARBAGALLO
Venue: Barbagallo Raceway, Wanneroo, WA
2004 Race format: Top 10 Shootout & 100km race (Saturday); 2 x
100km races (Sunday) – Compulsory tyre stop each race
Circuit Length: 2.415 km
Circuit Direction: Clockwise
Average Speed: 150 km/h
Maximum Speed: 245 km/h (Tait Straight)
Qualifying Record: Mark Skaife (2000) 0:56.9709
Lap Record: Craig Lowndes (1996) 0:57.9950
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (After round 4 of 13)
1: Steve Richards (Holden) 704
2: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 694
3: Greg Murphy (Holden) 665
4: Rick Kelly (Holden) 644
5: Jason Bright (Holden) 593
6: Russell Ingall (Ford) 514
7: John Bowe (Ford) 484
8: Todd Kelly (Holden) 457
9: Jason Bargwanna (Ford) 438
10: Garth Tander (Holden) 434
15. Paul Radisich (Ford) 392
20. Max Wilson (Ford) 304
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