Bathurst bares its teeth
10/10/2004 22:37 (Press Release) -
South Australia’s Team Dynamik overcame early dramas to salvage 13th place in today’s Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race. Dynamik drivers Simon Wills and Paul Stokell brought the Dodo Internet car #44 home in the top 15, surging through the field in the final 40 laps before a record crowd of 60,359.
In the second Dynamik car, Dale Brede and Will Davison had their race plan derailed by engine overheating and had to retire the Dodo Internet car #45 after 49 laps.
Holden drivers Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly retained their Bathurst crown today with a solid win, nine seconds clear of second placed Ford drivers Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton, with John Bowe and Brad Jones third in another Ford.
It was a demanding race for Wills and Stokell, who fell a lap down at a pit stop under safety car conditions on lap 51, and never recovered. However, crew and drivers kept working hard to keep the car on the track and avoid becoming one of the day’s 12 retirements.
“It was a hard day,” said Wills. “We didn’t really have the pace today but it was good to finish.”
The Dodo Internet #44 also broke a front sway bar around the 100-lap mark. Stokell, who drove more than 60 of the 161 laps today, said the car’s handling became difficult over the final 50 laps.
“Despite that, during the race we were quicker than a lot of other cars around us,” he said.
The Dodo Internet #44 fell back to 22nd place after the sway bar drama, but then Stokell and Wills made up nine places in the race’s final quarter, as attrition took hold.
Brede and Davison were bitterly disappointed after engine overheating ended their race at lap 49. Davison said on-track debris from the day’s many crashes may have punctured the radiator, leading to overheating and sapping engine power.
Brede said the race plans had gone perfectly to that stage: “We had a plan to stay out of trouble, and we were finding some good pace.”
Wills recorded Dynamik’s fastest lap of the day in car #44 – 2:10.6620 – while Brede clocked #45’s best time with a 2:11.4249. He drove 20 laps, while Davison was on his 29th when their race ended.
Drivers today had to deal with debris, warm temperatures and even kangaroos in the 161-lap enduro around the 6.21km Mount Panorama circuit.
Stokell was just a few car lengths behind the Castrol Holden of Jim and Steve Richards when it hit a kangaroo hopping across the Cutting. Both the Richards and the roo ended the day badly.
The V8 Supercar Series travels to the Gold Coast Indy in two weeks for Round 11 of the 2004 V8 Supercar Championship Series.
|
|
