R5K QUAL - Parsons on pole for penultimate parade
7/7/2001 18:30 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
David “Truckie” Parsons continued his patriarchal domination of the Konica Series today, winning pole position for the penultimate round at Lakeside Raceway.
The series leader put his Gibson Motorsport Commodore on pole with a 51.76s fastest lap in this afternoon’s 55-minute qualifying session. The time was just three-tenths outside Glenn Seton’s long-standing V8 Supercar lap record.
Parsons, 46, said he got all he could from the Gibson machine; "The car might be able to go faster but they will have to put someone else in to drive it!”
Gibson stable-mate Paul Dumbrell qualified second, four one-hundredths slower in his Wynn’s-sponsored Holden. The 18-year-old topped the time sheets in both practice and the early stages of qualifying, only to be pipped by Parsons late in the session.
Championship contender Simon Wills, aboard his Birrana Racing-prepared Commodore, will start in third.
“In the first practice session I was in sixth place and really struggling," Wills said. “It had understeer going into the corners and oversteer coming out of them, it was a shocking car. But my engineer made some good changes and it was much better in qualifying."
Local hero Wayne Wakefield made an auspicious return to the series in his aging VS Commodore, with an impressive 52.3s flier to land him a spot on the second row. Wakefield, whose tussle with David Besnard here last year provided the season’s racing highlight, hasn’t driven a V8 Supercar since Bathurst last year.
After a heavy shunt in testing last week, Wakefield was satisfied with the result. "We are still not happy with the car but we’ll make a few more changes and see what it’s like in the morning warm-up," he said.
From the slower 50% qualifying session, Garry Holt bounded into the top ten with a stunning lap to clinch fifth on the grid, displacing Kevin Mundy who still managed to upstage his boss, Craig Harris, with a year-best sixth.
Leanne Ferrier has work to do in seventh, ahead of Harris. Michael Simpson, with sponsorship from the VIP Petfoods Queensland 500 this weekend, qualified in ninth.
The first of three 20-minute sprint races (the second of which will again feature a top ten reverse grid) will commence at 11:30am.
**QUALIFYING - TOP TEN**
1st DAVID PARSONS (Gibson Motorsport) - VT Commodore [0:51.7606min]
2nd PAUL DUMBRELL (Wynn's Racing) - VT Commodore [0:51.8077]
3rd SIMON WILLS (Team Dynamik) - VT Commodore [0:51.8804]
4th WAYNE WAKEFIELD (Graphic Skills Racing) - VS Commodore [0:52.3513]
5th GARRY HOLT (Eastern Creek Kart Racing) - EL Falcon [0:52.3792]
6th KEVIN MUNDY (Castrol Harris Racing) - AU Falcon [0:52.4670]
7th LEANNE FERRIER (Garry Rogers Motorsport) - VT Commodore [0:52.6345]
8th CRAIG HARRIS (Castrol Harris Racing) - AU Falcon [0:52.6889]
9th MICHAEL SIMPSON (Michael Simpson Racing) - EL Falcon [0:52.7070]
10th DALE BREDE (NRC Racing) - VT Commodore [0:52.7391]
For complete practice/qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?08/07/2001.LIR
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