Team Red takes heart from scrappy streetfight
13/4/2005 19:03 (Press Release) -
A series of serious setbacks were not enough to stop the Holden Racing Team from eking out an encouraging start to the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series on the streets of Adelaide in the Clipsal 500.
The now-traditional 2x250km format is tough on both cars and drivers and Team Red had plenty of its own dramas, but responded well as Todd Kelly grabbed an improbable 3rd placing for the round and Mark Skaife put a DNF in the first race behind him to charge from 29th to 3rd in Race 2.
“We’ve had a good weekend,” Skaife said afterwards. “For Todd to finish third for the round and for both of us to press on and finish well after all of the setbacks, just shows that we’ve really got some potential in this team.
“The team has done an excellent job this weekend. There’s a great vibe around the place. The Red team is certainly back – in terms of atmosphere, it’s as good as I have ever seen it, and that includes the championship years.”
Both drivers fell victim to the same mystery distributor problem during the weekend – Kelly in qualifying and Skaife in Race 1 – and Skaife hit a wall in qualifying after incidental contact with a tyre bundle broke his steering.
Despite the setbacks, good strategy and solid teamwork saw both vying for podium finishes in both races, a fact which gave team owner Skaife plenty to enthuse about.
“We’ve been a second a lap quicker here this year and that’s not just about engine power, it’s about tyres and the way you drive these things,” he said. “I’m happy with how the package has been turned out and I’m confident there’s more to come.”
Teammate Kelly was also upbeat about the results. “Considering the amount of things that have gone wrong this weekend it’s bloody good to be up there at the end of the weekend, to be honest. All the guys are pretty rapt back at the garage,” he said.
He lamented the two drive-through penalties he received in Race 2 – one for crossing a control line in an unsuccessful dive to get into the pits and the other for tapping another competitor into a spin – which cost him the chance to improve on his 4th placing in that race.
“In that race I made it pretty hard for myself by getting two drive-through penalties and going to the back of the grid twice, so I had to spend the whole race passing cars. It was one of the hardest races I’ve driven in that respect,” he said.
“That’s really cost us and it was a bit of a shame because the car was really good. I got a fantastic start and passed a lot of cars, and then had to come back and pass them all again later. We’re just looking forward now to the rest of the season and seeing how we can get more out of these cars because at the moment they’re great.”
HRT scoreboard
Session Mark Skaife Todd Kelly
Practice 1 7th 1st
Practice 2 4th 24th
Qualifying 10th 15th
Top 10 Shootout DNS (car damaged) -
Race 1 DNF (distributor) 8th
Race 2 3rd (started 29th) 4th
Round finish 17th 3rd
Round points 90 162
Championship position 17th 3rd
Championship positions (end Round 1)
1 Marcos Ambrose 192pts
2 Craig Lowndes 183pts
3 Todd Kelly (HRT) 162pts
4 Steven Johnson 141pts
5 Paul Weel 141pts
6 Russell Ingall 138pts
7 Paul Dumbrell 135pts
8 Cameron McConville 129pts
9 Rick Kelly 126pts
10 Jason Bright 108pts
-------------------------------------------------------------
17 Mark Skaife (HRT) 90pts
Release Date: 20/03/2005
Holden Racing Team
|
|
