Steven Richards best-placed Holden driver at BigPond Grand Finale
11/1/2005 16:30 (Press Release) -
After a long season of V8 Supercar racing, Castrol Perkins Motorsport’s Steven Richards took away the consolation of being the best-placed Holden driver in the BigPond Grand Finale at Eastern Creek Raceway on the weekend.
Despite struggling in qualifying, Richards managed to work his way through the field and end up fourth overall for the round and improve in the championship, rounding out 2004 in fifth spot in the series after leap-frogging Kmart Racing’s Rick Kelly.
It was a weekend where Ford’s Marcos Ambrose wrapped up the championship with a crushing demolition job of the field, leaving his rivals to begin planning their 2005 campaigns almost immediately.
With the fight for the minor positions in the championship still up for grabs, the final round of the season was a keenly awaited contest. An added element was the first race being held as a twilight event on Saturday evening, telecast live in prime time by Network Ten.
Fresh from a podium result at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, Richards started strongly, putting the #11 Castrol VY into the top 10 in practice on Friday. He reported that the balance of the car hadn’t been too bad, but he had been hampered by a bad set of tyres and a second set had made for an improvement.
Come qualifying on Saturday and Richards was unable to put himself into the Top 10 Shootout. After spending time hovering inside the vital top 10, some faster cars bumped Richards out and he ended up back in position 14. He’d struggled for grip at both ends of the car and went as far as to use 10 of his allocated 12 tyres for the weekend to try and work his way into the Shootout, missing out by just two-tenths of a second.
With a handful of changes, Richards charged up the order in the opening 100-kilometre race. Aided by both of the Holden Racing Team cars coming to grief at the first corner as well as some savvy driving, Richo made a good start and the crew gave him a quick pit stop, netting him eighth spot at the end of the race.
The two longer races on Sunday made for interesting strategies among many teams, as engineers and drivers figured out ways to make their tyres last. The heat was especially sapping and Richards later said that Race 2 for the weekend on Sunday was one of the toughest races he’s competed in on a physical level.
Richards made his compulsory pit stop on lap 7 of 39 after making up a couple of spots in the opening laps. But then it turned to disaster, as the crew couldn’t get the wheel nuts on the rear wheels correctly as the rear wheels were spinning.
The delay left Richards to rejoin and engage in dice with Ford driver Steven Johnson that would last for another 25 laps before the Castrol Commodore worked its way past. But that wasn’t all, as namesake Jason Richards attacked quickly, aided by fresher tyres on his Tasman Motorsport car.
Steven did a sterling job and, despite a brief moment when Jason got by, the Castrol machine greeted the chequered flag in fourth spot, top Holden in the race.
The final race saw the prospect of showers, as dark clouds circled within sight of the Western Sydney circuit, prompting Richards and his engineer Barry Ryan to run longer before their compulsory pit stop in the hope of the wet weather arriving and not having to make a second stop for wet weather tyres.
The rain stayed away for the majority of the race, and another small drama in the pits left Richards delayed, eventually clawing through for eighth place in the race and fourth overall for the weekend.
Things were a lot tougher for his younger team-mates Paul Dumbrell and Alex Davison, who was having his first race in a VY Commodore (the car used by Richards up until the Sandown 500) after campaigning at Sandown, Bathurst and Symmons Plains in the older VX.
Both struggled in qualifying, Dumbrell 26th and Davison 27th, as their worked on trying to find a setup that would drag speed out of their respective cars but also one that would work in race conditions.
A change in setup for Dumbrell paid dividends in the opening race on Saturday night, the former Konica champion vaulting up the order with a good pit stop and improved car to finish 16th, while an engine problem hampered Davison’s progress, leaving him 23rd and his #7 crew with an engine change to perform overnight.
Things continued to be a struggle for the dup for Sunday’s races. Race two saw Dumbrell 25th and Davison 27th, while the final race ended with Dumbrell 24th and Davison again 27th.
QUOTEBOOK
Steven Richards (4th - #11 Castrol Commodore VY)
“The aim for the weekend was to get back into the top five of the championship and we achieved that. We based our car similar to how we ran it earlier in the year, although the weather was a fair bit different last time we were at Eastern Creek in April, where it rained and we finished fourth.
“It has been quite a year for the team. From running two cars in 2003 to running four in 2004, there are more people working at Larry’s workshops and overall it’s been a strong year, with five podium results and three pole positions.
“There have been some incredible highs for the whole team and something for everyone to expand on in 2005. The crew deserves a well-earned break.”
Paul Dumbrell (23rd - #8 Castrol Commodore VY)
“Looking at the scorecard for the season from my point of view, there’s not all that much to get excited about, but there are positives to take away from the year. The learning process continues and there were some good results this year for the #8 car.
“Eastern Creek was another of the tough weekends that you have in motorsport and it’ll be critical that we have less of them in 2005 if I’m to take steps forward. Keeping the mistakes to a minimum and rewarding the hard work of the guys at Castrol Perkins is the focus for next year.”
Alex Davison (28th - #7 Castrol Commodore VY)
“Talk about tough weekends! That was one of the most frustrating ones I’ve had in my career I think! We really just couldn’t get the car to handle well all weekend and that makes for frustrating races because you’re spending more of your time just focused on making it to the end rather than having a good old race with somebody.
“But the last few race weekends have been all about giving me experience in the cars and that’s experience that you can’t buy, so I’m pretty eager to get stuck into 2005 tomorrow.”
Larry Perkins (Team Owner)
“To be blunt, I’d give us a two out of 10 for the year. Racing is all about getting results. You have to absolutely make the most of your opportunities. There are so many variables, from teamwork to pit work, crashes, reliability; they are all factors.
“I guess to look at the positives, our car speed in the latter half of the year has been quite fast but we just haven’t been able to convert it to results.”
FINAL RESULTS – Round 13, BigPond Grand Finale, Eastern Creek, New South Wales, December 4-5 2004:
1. Marcos Ambrose, #1 Pirtek Falcon BA, 192 pts
2. Paul Radisich, #88 Betta Falcon BA, 174 pts
3. Russell Ingall, #98 Caltex Havoline Falcon BA, 160 pts
4. Steven Richards, #11 Castrol Commodore VY, 158 pts
5. Mark Skaife, #2 HRT Commodore VY, 144 pts
6. Cameron McConville, #33 Valvoline Commodore VY, 142 pts
7. Steven Johnson, #17 Shell Helix Falcon BA, 142 pts
8. Jason Richards, #3 Tasman Commodore VY, 136 pts
9. Jason Bargwanna, #10 Orrcon Falcon BA, 124 pts
10. Craig Lowndes, #6 CAT Falcon BA, 122 pts
23. Paul Dumbrell, #8 Castrol Commodore VY, 68 pts
28. Alex Davison, #7 Castrol Commodore VY, 44 pts
Release Date: 08/12/2004
Castrol Perkins Motorsport
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