Improvement for Ellery at Barbagallo
13/6/2004 22:36 (Press Release) -
Super Cheap Auto Racing’s Steven Ellery has completed the first leg of round five of the 2004 V8 Supercar Championship inside the top 17 after bouncing back from a disastrous practice session yesterday.
A broken steering rack cost the Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon valuable track time which was needed to provide information to the crew on the newly resurfaced Barbagallo Raceway on the outskirts of Perth.
“It was disappointing yesterday to have our track time cut short due to the damage sustained as a result of contact with another car,” Ellery said.
“This morning I knew it was going to be a challenging day. But it is funny how things in motorsport work their own way out with qualifying a total surprise to everybody in pit lane.
“The ever changing weather conditions meant a limited number of competitors from the qualifying session for the top 50 percent record times which saw them fast enough to compete in the top ten shootout.”
Ellery completed his qualifying time in the session for the lower 50 percent with ever changing weather conditions helping the Super Cheap Auto Racing driver start the first race from 16th .
“It was a nice surprise to start the race inside the top 16 and today was our best qualifying performance since the first round of the championship at Adelaide,” Ellery stated.
“While we haven’t started the championship the way we wanted maybe today is a sign that I am getting on top of the little things which have cost valuable championship points.”
According to Super Cheap Auto Racing Team Manager, John McLean, Ellery had the potential to finish today’s race even higher than 17 after a 10 second delay in pit lane.
“Being a single car operation we share a pit boom with another team,” McLean stated “when the safety car came out early in the race Super Cheap Auto Racing called Steven into the pits at the same time as Tasman Motorsport with Steven waiting in pit lane for at least 10 seconds before the team could even commence the pit stop.
“When you look at the race standings if that 10 second delay hadn’t occurred we would have been knocking at the door of a top 12 finish.”
After the pit stop, Ellery was 26th on track and consistent lap times over the remainder of the race ensured the strong race result.
Round five of the 2004 V8 Supercar Championship wraps up tomorrow with race two at 10.35am with the final at 1pm.
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