Power steering failure put Morris out of race
13/6/2004 22:34 (Press Release) -
Power steering failure forced Sirromet Wines Holden Commodore driver Paul Morris out of today's opening race in the fifth round of the V8 Supercar Championship in West Australia.
Morris, who was fifth fastest in yesterday's first practice session, withdrew from today's race after 22 of the 42 laps when in 12th position. He clocked a best lap time of 56.983-secs on his 19th lap around the 2.4km Barbagallo Raceway circuit near Perth.
After qualifying12th on the grid, Morris improved to eighth by lap three, and then made his compulsory pit-stop. He resumed racing in 14th position, and moved up two places before the power steering failed in his VY Commodore.
The race, held on a dry track, was won by Mark Skaife in a Holden Racing Team Commodore ahead of Jason Bright in a PWR Commodore, and Marcos Ambrose in a Pirtek Ford Falcon.
Earlier today, Morris' attempts to secure a position in the Top 10 Shoot Out were thwarted by a combination of Red Flag conditions and rain during qualifying. The 36-year-old Gold Coast driver was able to complete only six laps in qualifying before a Red Flag was shown when another car went off the track. There was a delay before rthe session resumed and then it rained, which did not allow Morris to improve on his qualifying time of 56.451-secs, which left him 12th fastest in the session.
The round will be completed by two 100km races tomorrow.
PAUL MORRIS QUOTES: "We've got good car speed here, so today was frustrating. The car was quick enough to get into the (Top 10) Shoot Out, but first there was a Red Flag and then it rained so I wasn't able to do the (lap) time I needed to do. In the race the car was good. I was able to jump up a couple of places in the first few laps, and then I lost some time because there was a mix up in front of me. I was running close behind Russell (Ingall) for quite a while and then I felt the (power) steering starting to slip. I struggled for a few laps and the belt broke so that was the end of the day. Tomorrow is going to be tough starting down the back, but we have to forget about what happened today and push on."
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