Qualifying Report
8/10/2004 20:40 (Mark Jones) -
Greg Murphy has taken provisional pole position after a fascinating battle over the top ten positions which saw Jason Bright seemingly in the box seat until the final moments. Murphy's final lap 2:08.0940 grabbed pole position from Bright by just three hundredths of a second. A problem in the pit bay at the PWR Performance Products team had seen Bright unable to make it out in time for the closing moments of the session and had pole snatched away from him by the defending race champion.
Almost as sensational as the battle at the front of the field, was the dramas in the red and white army as for the first time since 1989, their first year on the Mountain, the Holden Racing Team will be missing from the top ten shootout. While #05 was never expected to make the top ten with Peter Brock and Jason Platos times being over a second from top ten all week, Mark Skaife was one of the favourites to take pole position, but a broken watts linkage sidelined the four times Bathurst champion during the fastest part of the session, and despite being under eight tenths from Murphy's time HRT's lead driver will be buried in 18th, the ninth row of the grid.
In the most competitive field in the 41 year history of the race has seen the top 20 cars covered by less than a second. Behind Bright the top ten lines up as Steven Richards (Castrol Commodore), Craig Lowndes in the best of the Fords, Russell Ingall (Caltex Falcon), Paul Morris (Sirromet Commodore), Bathurst specialist Paul Dumbrell (Castrol Commodore) and Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Falcon).
Garth Tander missed the Saturday afternoon shootout by four hundredths while twelfth for Steve Owen in the second K-Mart Commodre is a pleasant surprise for the perenial fringe driver who stepped back into Formula Ford earlier this season. Owen will start ahead of Steven Johnson and Steven Ellery, who had been in the top ten up until now.
Lowndes time is a big step up for Ford Performance Racing but the team have been caught red faced after the teams second car, led by recent British Touring Car Championship Vice-Champion Yvan Muller has been excluded from qualifying after the car was found to be underweight.
Fifth is a noteworthy effort for the Stone Brothers team and Russell Ingall after Cameron McLean had a high speed off at Caltex Chase. Once the Caltex Vortex Ford was back in the pits three hours worth of repairs was needed before the car was ready for qualifying.
Paul Morris recorded sixth fastest despite dragging a rear tyre puncture around for half a lap during the session.
The Betta Electrical team, the big improving Ford team this year have been off the pace this session with Dean Canto qualifying in 17th while the teams lead car of Paul Radisich and Max Wilson will start in 22nd.
Trailing the field is the John Faulkner Racing/Holden Young Lions entry of Christian D'Agostin and Kurt Wimmer, 5.7 seconds from the time set by Greg Murphy.
The other major incident in the qualifying session was a crash for Matthew White in the second of the PWR Performance Products Commodore. The accident, in the last minute of the under 50% qualifying session, brought a premature end to the session.
The top ten shootout session will be held tomorrow afternoon at 3:40pm.
Top Ten Times
1 #15 Greg Murphy (Kmart Racing Team Holden Commodore VY) 2:08.0940
2 #50 Jason Bright (PWR Performance Products Holden Commodore VY) 2:08.1283
3 #11 Steven Richards (Castrol Perkins Motorsport Holden Commodore VY) 2:08.1363
4 #6 Craig Lowndes (Ford Performance Racing Ford Falcon BA) 2:08.3637
5 #9 Russell Ingall (Caltex Havoline Race Team Ford Falcon BA) 2:08.4064
6 #29 Paul Morris (Sirromet - Life,Style,Wine Holden Commodore VY) 2:08.4906
7 #10 Jason Bargwanna (Larkham Orrcon Racing Ford Falcon BA) 2:08.4963
8 #12 John Bowe (OzEmail Racing/Brad Jones Racing Ford Falcon BA) 2:08.5197
9 #8 Paul Dumbrell (Castrol Perkins Motorsport Holden Commodore VY) 2:08.5285
10 #1 Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing Ford Falcon BA) 2:08.5736
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