All not lost for White
5/9/2004 23:06 (Press Release) -
Matthew White’s Konica Minolta V8 Supercar championship hopes slipped a little further today at South Australia’s Mallala Motorsport Park when he qualified seventh for tomorrow’s final round.
Although one of seven drivers still in with a mathematical chance of snatching the title, White trails championship leader Luke Youlden by 70 points and the qualifying result makes the mountain he needs to scale loom even taller.
Struggling to get the Gulf Western Oils/Jayco Caravans Ford to the top of the time sheets early in the day, changes were made to car setup. But alas, the search for speed did not work for the twice series runner-up.
"It (the car) was actually surprisingly quick. We’d probably been misled in the first two sessions with bad tyres because we gained about one and a half seconds in qualifying . But whilst you’re going through all that, you’re sort of chasing your tail and not optimising the car," White said of his qualifying performance.
The second Matthew White Racing car qualified 21st. Dean Wanless made his maiden trip to Mallala and his first impressions could yet work to his teammate’s advantage. "There could be a lot of crashes. This place is tight, very tight," Wanless said as he stepped from the Watecorp Commodore after the first practice session.
Should his analysis of the layout prove correct and White has a change of fortune, an unlikely serires win could still be on the cards.
After leading the series earlier in the season, White has had a terrible run of luck, particularly in the reverse grid races. Should the series leaders suffer the same fate, White is hopeful if a strong finish to the championship.
Though not totally satisfied with his starting position, White is looking forward to being in a quick and reliable car for tomorrow’s three races.
"It was quite good out there then (qualifying), it was consistent. I did bunch laps in the 1m09.0s and 1m09.1s barrier but I just didn’t get quicker than that. The car’s quicker than I got out of it then and it’s not really that far off the pace."
"It only takes one DNF for one of the front runners and we could still finish about fourth," he said.
The final round of the Konica Minolta series will hit the track at Mallala tomorrow morning.
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