Pukekohe Race 1
25/4/2005 23:45 (Danielle Schwerin) -
The drama started before the race was even underway, due to the rule changes this year that abolished driver roll throughs before griding up. Craig Lowndes didn’t take his position at the front of the queue for the formation roll around because of a loose wheel nut that needed changing. The team managed to get the wheel nut changed, with the permission of the officials, and rolled the car out before the pitlane was officially closed. As such, Lowndes took his position at the front of the grid.
Garth Tander and Matthew White weren’t so lucky, however. White’s time had been excluded for missing the weighbridge during the qualifying session. Tander was excluded for a team error; his team manager had allowed the crew to begin work on the car before it had been released from parc ferme conditions, post shootout.
Wheel spin and a bog down saw Craig Lowndes tussling hard with Marcos Ambrose through the first few turns. It ended with Lowndes taking an excursion onto the grass before a collision between the pair spun Lowndes off at turn three, sending him to the back of the pack. This moved Ambrose into first position with Greg Murphy, hot on his heels, in second. By lap 6 Lowndes had worked his way back up into position 27.
Tander, having worked himself away from the very back of the field and into 23rd, found himself in trouble when he got a little too friendly with the new paint schemes on both of DJR’s Westpoint machines; the paint swap moving him back down the order again.
As lap 7 got underway so did the compulsory pitstops with a number of teams jumping in early in an effort to either get themselves out of the building freight train or to avoid the possible penalties if a safety car came out.
The resulting congestion in pitlane led to a collision between the Team BOC car of John Bowe and the WPS car of David Besnard. As Bowe exited his pit bay, Besnard was pulling in, across Bowe’s path, for his stop and to have some trailing bodywork removed. Bowe was later fined $5000 by the IPO for an unsafe exit from his pit bay and for failing to move into the fast lane on exit of the pit bay.
Out on track, Murphy pulled a clean move on Ambrose to take the lead of the race late on lap 8, this would only last a few corners, however, as Murphy made his entry to pitlane to complete his compulsory pitstop. His team made the strategic decision to change only the two rear tyres in a 6.1 second stop. Getting away from his pit- bay, Murphy suffered a minor delay with some wheel spin.
It turned out that this would not however be a problem for Murphy as, while he was busy in pitlane, Ambrose and Steven collided while battling for P1. Richards, coming from behind, made it as far up as the middle of Marcos’ door before the two cars came together mid-corner. Richards suffered some damage to his front left bodywork, which caused him to pull in for his compulsory pitstop and some work on the front splitter; with Ambrose also heading in for a slick change of his rear tyres.
With Ambrose having lost around six places during his incident, Russell Ingall found himself right behind Murphy, with Skaife third of those in the field who had completed their CPS’s. Murphy, Ingall and Ambrose were the quickest cars on track, continually trading fastest laps.
Craig Baird, Andrew Jones and Jason Bargwanna came together at the hairpin on lap 15. While Jones had broken part of his rear bumpers away, Bargwanna sustained severe damage to the front of the car that forced him to pit for repairs. The car ended in the garage as the team started the overnight repairs in preparation for race 2. Craig Baird also ended up out of the race with damage to both the front and rear of the cars.
As it turned out the car was already in trouble with a broken anti-roll bar, but the team had been hoping Baird would make it to the end of the race. Andrew Jones appeared to be the villain of the incident as Baird alleged that he “came in way too hot.” He had in fact managed to reach the all important B-pillar on the inside of Baird’s car before the two came together leaving no where for Bargwanna, who was following the two, to go but into the back of the Jones car. On lap 23, Jones would receive a drive-through penalty for his part in the carnage.
When Craig Lowndes pitted on lap 20, Murphy moved up into 5th position, with only cars that hadn’t completed their CPS infront; still followed closely by Ingall and with Mark Skaife doing what he does best – producing consistent fast and smooth lap times – in 7th.
At the end of the CPS window, on lap 25, with all cars having completed their stops, the top ten read: Murphy, Ingall, Skaife, Steve Ellery, Ambrose, Jason Richards, Todd Kelly, Paul Radisich, Bright and Rick Kelly. The efforts of both Kelly brothers were of particular note as Rick had started the race in 17th and his older brother, who was 3 positions ahead, from 20th.
Battling at the back of the field, Britek’s Matthew White made contact with the back of Anthony Tratt at the hairpin, spinning the 75 car. On lap 31, White would receive a black flag for the contact.
Jason Richards also went off of his own accord when he ran wide and locked his rear brakes defending his position from Todd Kelly. Kelly then lost two places, as Radisich and Bright got past.
Mark Winterbottom, who had brought his car up into the top ten, received a mechanical black flag to come in for repairs on lap 28; the passenger side window panel was hanging out of the side of the door.
Cameron McConville tagged the rear of Rick Kelly’s car at the hairpin causing him to spin in the middle of the corner – luckily he was off the racing line. Simon Wills joined in the trend of going off at the hairpin, although this time it had more to do with mechanics than racing. He was driving at low speed and off the racing line after his power steering had failed and was spilling oil onto the track. After radioing in “went in at hairpin and couldn't turn it, coming at 5km/h” to his engineer, Wills was recalled to the pits, his afternoon over.
Craig Lowndes was making an effort to repeat his performance from Adelaide coming from the back of the field to challenge Paul Weel for 14th; he pulled past mid lap 32. The train that built behind 12th placed McConville, involving Seton, Lowndes, Weel, and John Bowe were looking for every, and any, opportunity to pass. Lap 34 saw Seton pull past taking the other three with him; McConville slid back 4 spots in one move as Steven Johnson and Winterbotttom joined the queue.
Johnson wasn’t wasting anytime and pulled past into the next corner, as Lowndes was challenging Seton for position. In his efforts to pass, Lowndes went down the outside of Seton to get the inside run for the next corner loosing out in the end as he exposed himself to a pass by Weel.
Seton must have thought all the effort was for nothing as he slipped off the road on Baird’s power steering fluid only a handful of kilometres from the chequered flag.
In the end the advantages were minimal as Murphy crossed the line to win the race, taking his total for race victories to 7 from a possible 13. Saturday’s race had shown that Murphy was definitely out to cement his place as the King of Pukekohe in the V8’s final weekend at the park.
The Race results read:
Pos Car Entrant Driver Vehicle Laps Race Time Fastest Lap Fastest Time
1 51 Super Cheap Auto Racing Greg Murphy Holden Commodore VZ 36 34:53.7573 12 0:56.0781
2 9 Caltex Racing Russell Ingall Ford Falcon BA 36 34:56.8774 14 0:56.2112
3 2 Holden Racing Team Mark Skaife Holden Commodore VZ 36 34:58.4307 18 0:56.2149
4 88 Team Betta Electrical Steve Ellery Ford Falcon BA 36 35:05.6801 12 0:56.3524
5 1 Pirtek Racing Marcos Ambrose Ford Falcon BA 36 35:08.6337 11 0:56.1116
6 021 Team Kiwi Racing Paul Radisich Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:09.1154 7 0:56.5584
7 6 Ford Performance Racing Jason Bright Ford Falcon BA 36 35:09.5727 25 0:56.5300
8 22 Holden Racing Team Todd Kelly Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:13.6068 8 0:56.3596
9 67 Sirromet-Life Style Wine Paul Morris Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:21.5482 26 0:56.4451
10 23 Tasman Motorsport Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:21.5669 13 0:56.4909
11 50 Super Cheap Auto Racing Paul Weel Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:29.6003 19 0:56.5317
12 12 Team BOC John Bowe Ford Falcon BA 36 35:29.9536 15 0:56.6568
13 17 Westpoint Racing Steven Johnson Ford Falcon BA 36 35:31.3947 12 0:56.6673
14 888 Team Betta Electrical Craig Lowndes Ford Falcon BA 36 35:31.8602 23 0:56.3300
15 45 WOW Sight & Sound Max Wilson Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:32.2152 19 0:56.8231
16 15 HSV Dealer Team Rick Kelly Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:36.8926 5 0:56.7082
17 16 HSV Dealer Team Garth Tander Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:36.9979 18 0:56.4632
18 3 Tasman Motorsport Jason Richards Holden Commodore VZ 36 35:38.1690 13 0:56.3623
19 5 Ford Performance Racing Greg Ritter Ford Falcon BA 36 35:43.2426 22 0:56.8908
20 18 Westpoint Racing Glenn Seton Ford Falcon BA 36 35:48.1377 13 0:56.7171
21 33 Repco Valvoline Cummins Team Cameron McConville Holden Commodore VZ 36 36:10.1523 17 0:56.5039
22 21 Team BOC Brad Jones Ford Falcon BA 35 34:56.0684 12 0:56.6100
23 75 Toll Racing Anthony Tratt Holden Commodore VY 35 35:00.5348 22 0:57.3264
24 20 Larkham Orrcon Racing Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon BA 35 35:32.8779 15 0:57.0207
25 52 Britek Motorsport Matthew White Ford Falcon BA 35 35:39.1277 16 0:56.9905
26 24 Team Perkins Racing Paul Dumbrell Holden Commodore VY 35 35:47.3057 17 0:56.7063
27 34 Repco Valvoline Cummins Team Andrew Jones Holden Commodore VZ 34 35:03.8379 10 0:57.3735
28 11 Team Perkins Racing Steven Richards Holden Commodore VY 32 34:59.5759 15 0:56.3550
29 48 WPS David Besnard Ford Falcon BA 32 35:28.5102 14 0:56.8715
30 44 Team Dynamik Simon Wills Holden Commodore VZ 30 35:19.9694 19 0:56.9363
DNF 8 WPS Racing Craig Baird Ford Falcon BA 13 13:47.2150 3 0:58.2335
DNF 10 Larkham Orrcon Racing Jason Bargwanna Ford Falcon BA 13 13:49.3633 5 0:56.7856
Release Date: 16/04/2005
Pukekohe, New Zealand
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