Not so simple Symmons thwarts Tasman
29/11/2004 18:36 (Press Release) -
Deceptively short and simple on paper, Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway kept some of the country’s best Motorsport minds guessing this weekend and Tasman Inner Circle Rum Motorsport was no exception.
The V8 Supercar Championship Series’ return to its shortest track – effectively three straight sections connected by three tight corners – presented a difficult challenge for the Tasman crew and driver Jason Richards, 24th placing following the round’s three 100km races the frustrating result.
Richards drops to 17th position in championship standings, but with only a handful of points separating him from several drivers immediately ahead of him.
Although consistently challenged by the car set-up, the Tasman team had improved upon their qualifying effort of 24th to be running in 16th placing during Race 2 before being caught up in an incident between Paul Morris and Max Wilson that resulted in an unscheduled pitstop for the #3 Tasman Commodore to remove a dislodged piece of bodywork from the rear of the car. With each lap of the track taking just 53 seconds, the pitstop left the Tasman car trailing the field by a full lap.
“Morris and Max came together and Morris hit me in the rear as a result,” Richards said. “He (Morris) came and apologised to me afterwards, but it really cost us a lot.”
The previous day the team was almost the genius of the field when it was one of only two cars to postpone its compulsory pitstop until the last lap of the pit window, enabling it to fit wet tyres as rain began to fall across the track.
The anticipated downpour failed to fully materialise and the car suffered as its tyres overheated. “It was definitely worth a shot,” Richards said afterwards. “We’d started from 24th and could probably only have finished as high as 17th or 18th, so we didn’t have too much to lose. If the rain had arrived a little earlier, or been just a bit heavier, it could have been a race-winning strategy.”
Race 3 was less exciting for Tasman but more productive, finishing 17th despite still lacking overall car balance. “We changed direction a fair few times this weekend,” Richards said. “It turned out to be very difficult to predict exactly what the car wanted, but with the data we’ve got I think we can be a lot more competitive when we come back here next year.”
Round 13 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, the final round, will be held at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on December 3-5.
Release Date: 14/11/2004
Tasman Motorsport
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