Bathurst 1000 - Saturday Morning Practice
9/10/2004 13:59 (Mark Jones) -
Steven Richards slipped into the 'sevens' this morning in the early morning final practice session.
Greg Murphy came away from qualifying disappointed not to break into the seven second bracket. In this mornings practice session one car slipped into the sevens and it was Steven Richards who has claimed the fastest lap of the Mountain, heading into the shoot out for pole position this afternoon.
The New Zealand born Castrol Commodore driver flashed around the Mount Panorama circuit in a 2:07.9632 in the dying seconds of the session, just a tenth of a second quicker than Jason Bright in the PWR Performance Products Commodore.
Third fastest, and making his own statement after the disappointment of qualifying was Holden Racing Team lead driver Mark Skaife. Skaife led for the majority of the session before being undercut by first Bright, then Richards. Skaife will not be a part of the shoot out this afternoon for the first time since elevated to the position of the lead qualifying driver in his team, and the first time in 15 years HRT has missed the Saturday shoot out.
The other side the HRT coin, Peter Brock had two spins, one induced by another car, in a troubled session for the famous '05'. Also amongst the spinners, was Alex Yoong in the WPS Ford in what has become a frustratingly familiar tale for the team throughout the five sessions on the hill.
Other news from the Mountain, the PWR Performance Products team will now be concentrating on the Jason Bright / Paul Weel machine after the team officially scratched the #16 entry for Matthew White and Marcus Marshall.
White crashed in the left hander in the middle of the Esses at the top of the Mountain during the final minute of the 'slow 50%' qualifying session. To that point White's pace had been impressive and had qualified the car in 20th grid position, less than a second from Murphy's provisional pole position time.
Team Kiwi Racing was the other team in the morning news, having a mechanical failure on the way up the hill late in the session, dragging oil up until the car finally stopped at Reid Park.
The top ten shootout will be held at 3:40pm this afternoon.
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