R3S QUAL - Ambrose leads Ford shootout blitz
28/4/2001 17:30 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Remarkable rookie Marcos Ambrose continued his meteoric rise in the world of Supercar racing today, claiming pole position for the third round of the Shell Championship Series at Eastern Creek Raceway.
Fourth after provisional qualifying, Ambrose leapt to the front row with a breathtaking lap in the grid-determining top ten shootout, three-tenths quicker than anyone else.
Behind him, Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards and Glenn Seton made it a rare Ford quadrella.
Ambrose was the first man to drop under the 31-second barrier all weekend with his 1:30.89 minute shootout flier. It is his second V8 Supercar pole for the season, the first came at the opening non-championship event at Albert Park.
"Our car has been great this weekend and to put it on pole is a great achievement not only for me, but the team as a whole," Ambrose said.
"We refined the car throughout practice and qualifying, and I was confident of doing a very quick time.
"The lap was absolutely on the edge, I got pole but I could have very easily been off the road on a number of occasions.”
Craig Lowndes’ oldish AU Falcon is serving its pilot well, helping him to a season’s-best second. Lowndes had qualified in third before the shootout.
"Marcos got it right, where I made a couple of small errors, but the front row is the best place to be," Lowndes said.
Row two will be an all-Ford-Tickford affair, with Richards retaining his impressive second in qualifying and Seton improving from sixth.
"To have two cars on the second row is great achievement for our crew," Richards said.
The Holden Racing Team’s weekend has begun inauspiciously; both Jason Bright and Mark Skaife further back on the grid than they would like.
Despite promising reports, Bright’s brand-new VX Commodore was uncharacteristically slow straight out of the box this morning. Scraping into the top ten shootout from the slower 50 percent qualifying session, Bright had to be content with eighth.
Meanwhile, Mark Skaife cruised into the shootout after a typically astute display in practice and qualifying. However, an aborted shootout run (he lost his footing at turn two) means the defending champ will start from tenth.
The K-Mart Racing Team upstaged their more-fancied stable-mates with another fine display of speed.
Greg Murphy grabbed provisional pole, a 1:31.39 minute lap, before settling for fifth in the shootout. Todd Kelly will start a further row back.
John Bowe’s new Falcon is performing decidedly better than Bright’s new machine, recording some brilliant laps in practice to be well placed ahead in qualifying. The Tasmanian’s sixth in the shootout (seventh in qualifying) belies his morning’s work.
Russell Ingall deserved a position in the shootout, only displaced by Bright and Jason Bargwanna from the slower 50 percent qualifying session. Mark Larkham, too, was unlucky, qualifying in twelfth.
Severe understeer on cold tyres cost the Shell Helix Falcons any chance of qualifying success. Adelaide impresser Steven Johnson was 13th in qualifying, while Paul Radisich was eight-tenths off the pace in 15th.
"For some reason our cars always seem to struggle on these fast, flowing tracks,” DJR Principal Dick Johnson explained, “but I remember we had similar problems last year and Paul (Radisich) still won a race, so it's not over yet."
Lansvale Racing Team’s Cameron McConville was a star of practice, but fell back to 19th in qualifying. 2000 Shell Series runner-up Garth Tander was a distant 18th.
The real action begins at 11:30am tomorrow morning for race one, before the second 100km instalment at 3:00pm. Armchair fans should tune to Channel Ten at 2:30pm.
**QUALIFYING - TOP TEN**
1st GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:31.3941min]
2nd STEVEN RICHARDS (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.5774]
3rd CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) - AU Falcon [1:31.6617]
4th MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.8019]
5th MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:31.8051]
6th GLENN SETON (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.8988]
7th JOHN BOWE (CAT Racing) - AU Falcon [1:32.0053]
8th TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:32.0213]
9th JASON BARGWANNA (Valvoline-Cummins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:32.0593]
10th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:32.1036]
**TOP TEN SHOOTOUT**
1st MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1:30.8955min]
2nd CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) - AU Falcon [1:31.1996]
3rd STEVEN RICHARDS (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.4387]
4th GLENN SETON (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.4998]
5th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing) - VX Commodore [1:31.5992]
6th JOHN BOWE (CAT Racing) - AU Falcon [1:31.6266]
7th TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:31.7689]
8th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:31.9242]
9th JASON BARGWANNA (Valvoline-Cummins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:32.2014]
10th MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [2:21.6514]
For complete practice/qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?29/04/2001.ARDC
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