Morris Slowed by Mid-Race Incident
11/1/2005 15:56 (Press Release) -
Sirromet Wines Holden Commodore driver Paul Morris was slowed by a mid-race incident and finished 29th in tonight's first race in the 13th and final round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Sydney.
The steering arm on Morris' VY Commodore was broken after the left-front of his car made contact with the OzEmail Ford Falcon of Brad Jones on lap 13 of the 26-lap race at Eastern Creek, which was held on a dry track surface.
Morris, who was in 13th position at the time of the incident, was forced to make an unscheduled pit-stop for repairs to his car before he was able to resume racing in 30th place and four laps behind the leaders.
Earlier the 36-year-old from Queensland's Gold Coast qualified 13th for the race on the 3.9km circuit and in the opening five laps he improved to ninth before making his compulsory pit-stop. Morris' quickest lap time in the race was 1-min 34.301-secs.
Marcos Ambrose won the race in a Pirtek Ford Falcon to clinch the championship title for the second successive year. The Eastern Creek round will be completed with two more races tomorrow.
PAUL MORRIS QUOTES: "After my first pit-stop I caught a group of cars in front of me. I tried to pass Brad (Jones) two or three times and then we came together at the hairpin which broke the steering arm. I went up the inside and he turned in so there was nothing I could do about it. We managed to get the car back to the pits, but dropped a lot of laps fixing things before getting back out on the track. It's disappointing because the car had been going really quick. Earlier we had a problem with a sticking throttle in qualifying so it wasn't a good day. Tomorrow will be tough because we have to start (race two) down the back of the grid."
RESULTS – RACE 1 (26 laps):
POS DRIVERS CAR TIME
1. Marcos Ambrose Pirtek Ford Falcon 41:45.800
2. Craig Lowndes Ford Performance Racing Falcon 41:57.672
3. Jason Bright PWR Holden Commodore 41:58.404
4. David Besnard WPS Ford Falcon 42:12.892
5. Rick Kelly Kmart Holden Commodore 42:16.134
6. Paul Radisich Betta Electrical Ford Falcon 42:16.638
7. Russell Ingall Caltex Havoline Ford Falcon 42:17.100
8. Steven Richards Castrol Perkins Holden Commodore 42:17.479
9. Steven Johnson Shell Helix Ford Falcon 42:23.869
10. Jason Bargwanna Orrcon Ford Falcon 42:25.041
OTHER:
29. Paul Morris Sirromet Wines Holden Commodore 22 laps
FASTEST LAP: Ambrose 1-min 33.404-secs
Release Date: 04/12/2004
Sirromet Wines - Paul Morris Motorsports
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