Wilson and Radisich battle for grip
16/8/2004 12:12 (Press Release) -
Both Betta Electrical Ford V8 Supercar entries struggled to gain grip today in both practice sessions and again in qualifying. Coming to Oran Park this weekend after such a successful test session recently conducted at Queensland Raceway, the team including the drivers Radisich and Wilson were expecting a much improved performance from both cars during today’s qualifying session.
This was not to be with both Radisich and Wilson battling to gain tyre grip from the circuit and encountering ever changing track temperatures.
The team spent considerable time setting up the cars during the practice sessions and further encountering a faulty clutch thrust bearing in car #88 of Paul Radisich, requiring it to be replaced just two laps into the session.
Radisich returning to the circuit for a further two laps before being forced back into the pits with a leaking power steering hose again requiring further pit garage attention.
The third and final 90 minute practice session today saw both drivers improve marginally on their respective lap times with Radisich in car #88 posting a lap time of 1:10.0217 and registering 16th fastest for the session, where as Wilson in car #888 improved on his performance with a time of 1:09.6974 placing him 8th fastest for the final practice session.
Qualifying proved uncharacteristic for both drivers, with neither driver being able to perform at the required pace.
Radisich still experiencing balance problems with his car along with a lack of tyre grip saw him slip back through the field, finally registering 24th fastest time of 1:09.7480 – 1.0275 seconds off the pace from the lead car.
Max Wilson was also frustrated with qualifying by being baulked by slower cars in the closing stages, spoiling his chances of improving on his best lap time of 1:09.2641, placing him outside of the top ten placing’s in 14th spot.
“Yesterday’s practice session was a shocker” - said Radisich, “It was definitely Friday the 13th for both myself and the team”.
“We had great expectations coming into this round, particularly after a good showing during our recent test day”.
“We just hope our performance improves dramatically for tomorrows two races, I know the boys in the team will be working on it over night” – he said.
Max Wilson was also clearly disappointed in today’s outcome saying – “I really thought my qualifying time was going to be a lot better than it turned out”.
“I found myself continually coming up behind slower cars which inturn spoilt my times lap after lap, still I guess that situation can happen from time to time and it certainly did for me today”.
“I can now totally focus on tomorrows two races and that to me is what really counts” – Wilson concluded.
Tomorrows schedule will commence with the warm up at 9.40am followed by the two 54 lap races at 11.20am and 2.30pm.
RESULTS: TOP 10 SHOOTOUT- ORAN PARK
1: Mark Skaife - Holden Race Team - Holden Commodore 1:09.1107
2: Todd Kelly - Holden Race Team - Holden Commodore +0.2678
3: Simon Wills - Team Dynamik - Holden Commodore +0.3272
4: Jason Richards - Tasman Motorsport - Holden Commodore +0.3778
5: Marcos Ambrose - Pirtek Racing - Ford Falcon BA +0.4179
6: Jason Bright - PWR Racing - Holden Commodore +0.4795
7: Paul Morris - Siromet Racing - Holden Commodore +0.6155
8: Rick Kelly - KMart Racing - Holden Commodore +0.7396
9: Russell Ingall - Caltex Havoline Racing - Ford Falcon +0.7487
10: Greg Murphy - KMart Racing - Holden Commodore +0.9546
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