Richards fifth in opening Tassie hit out
26/11/2004 22:17 (Press Release) -
Castrol Perkins Motorsport’s Steven Richards has started his weekend strongly at the Tasmania Triple Challenge V8 Supercar event at Symmons Plains. The #11 Commodore VY was fifth quickest in today’s 35-minute practice session, the first time V8 Supercars have run on the 2.4-kilometre venue since 1999.
While Marcos Ambrose and Todd Kelly topped the timesheets, Richards was less than two-tenths of a second slower than the quickest cars and feels confident he has a good stead for this weekend’s penultimate round.
“It’s a really quick lap around here,” said Richo of the venue.
“The old surface used to be hard here on the rear tyres, particularly through the left hander coming onto the pit straight.”
With such a short lap time and compulsory pit stops in each of the three races this weekend, there could be a danger of cars falling a lap behind when they make their stops if a Safety Car comes out.
“The pitlane here isn’t as long as it is at other circuits. But for sure, if you get caught out, it’ll become a difficulty but adds another element to the race.
“For the last three races we’ve had a very fast car and the guys have worked hard on it, but a few misfortunes have stopped us from getting a result.”
Richards’ younger team-mate, Paul Dumbrell, was 20th fastest in today’s first hit-out, returning to the venue at which he made his V8 Supercar debut in 1999 as a 16-year-old schoolboy.
“We’re just working our way into things,” said ‘PD’.
“It’s hard to imagine I made my debut here five years ago! It seems like yesterday. It’d be nice to grab a few more championship points to push my way back up the order this weekend.”
Making his first start as a solo driver in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Alex Davison has taken over the #7 Castrol VX from Tony Longhurst and played himself in slowly.
The Carrera Cup Champion, who finished ninth in the same car at the Bathurst 1000 in October, has never raced at Symmons Plains before and spent his session learning the way around.
“I’ve just been trying to learn the track,” said the 25-year-old.
“We had a bit of a clutch problem during the session and that cost me a bit of time. I’m still working up to speed. The track’s quite tight but some of the corners have good flows to them.
“It will be even tighter come race time and the hairpin’s probably the only real opportunity that anyone has to pass another car.”
The cars will return to the track tomorrow for practice at 9.20am before qualifying commences at 11.35am. The Top 10 Shootout will start at 2.00pm, with the first race of 42 laps to start at 4.00pm.
Tasmanian Triple Challenge, Rd 12 – V8 Supercar Championship Series
Friday Practice Times
Pos No Driver Car Time
1 1 Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Falcon BA 52.8467
2 22 Todd Kelly HRT Commodore VY 52.8607
3 2 Mark Skaife HRT Commodore VY 52.9365
4 9 Russell Ingall Caltex Falcon BA 52.9538
5 11 Steven Richards Castrol Commodore VY 53.0305
6 34 Garth Tander Valvoline Commodore VY 53.0309
7 51 Greg Murphy Kmart Commodore VY 53.1159
8 6 Craig Lowndes CAT Falcon BA 53.1915
9 10 Jason Bargwanna Orrcon Falcon BA 53.1994
10 5 Glenn Seton Ford Credit Falcon BA 53.2040
20 8 Paul Dumbrell Castrol Commodore VY 53.5163
29 7 Alex Davison Castrol Commodore VX 54.0825
Release Date: 12/11/2004
Castrol Perkins Motorsport
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