R7S RACES - The Dude cleans-up at Calder
17/7/2001 16:35 (Press Release) -
Paul Morris has secured a career-first round victory in the V8 Supercar ranks in front of a record crowd of 26,500 at Victoria’s Calder Park Raceway, while an indiscretion by Mark Skaife has reignited the 2001 title race.
Morris, dubbed ‘the Dude’, started the weekend with an equal-best qualifying performance which earnt the laconic 34-year-old Gold Coast resident third spot on the start grid in his Big Kev Holden for the first of three 21-lap sprint races around the 2.28km circuit.
A fighting second in the first race was followed by a brace of wins to carry him to a convincing round win, his first since making the switch from a hugely-successful career in the Super Touring category to the Shell Championship Series at the beginning of last year.
Morris held out a train of up to eight cars at the finish of the third race to become the third driver this year to record his maiden victory in this category, following Marcos Ambrose in Darwin and Steven Johnson in Canberra. The result also brought to an end a three-round winning streak by the Ford teams.
"It’s pretty exciting after a year and a half of hard work," said Morris. "It’s a round win and not a championship win, but it is great in that it will give the whole team a big lift.
"It has been a tough initiation. It’s hard to work out this category all by ourselves, because we didn’t start from the basis of an established team and with restrictions on test days and the competitiveness of the whole field it is a big job to become a winner."
Morris was joined on the podium by Steven Johnson and Russell Ingall, both enjoying the opportunity to close the gap on points’ leader Mark Skaife who finished 14th after a stop/go penalty for ramming Steven Johnson in the first corner of the first heat.
Johnson had got the better of the start from pole-sitting Skaife and the HRT defending champion was found to have illegally bumped Johnson out of the way to reassume the lead and the punishment snuffed out his chances of victory.
Johnson went on to win the first heat but was left to rue a start in the second heat which cost him the chance of overall victory. His Shell Helix Falcon was left floundering on the line as five cars flashed by before he made the first turn.
"I really paid the penalty for that start, especially given the Skaife incident, which, might I add, I am very pleased was dealt with so quickly," he said.
"Skaife’s not unbeatable. We have gained 120 points on him this weekend alone. All we need to do is keep this up and get a good run at the double points races at Queensland and Bathurst later in the year and it’s game on."
Ingall agreed. The chance to close in on Skaife in the title chase was enough for the ‘Enforcer’ to maintain a whole afternoon of uncharacteristically clean driving in his brand-new Perkins-prepared VX Commodore.
"You have got to be careful these days, particularly if you are like myself or Steven (Johnson) and trying to chase the championship, and especially after we saw Skaife drop from first to 29th after his mistake," said Ingall.
"You have to be aware that there are officials walking around with loaded guns and I don’t want to get shot.”
"The gap to Skaife and Bright at the top of the points table is smaller now. Junior (Johnson) and I are in with a real show. I am pretty optimistic about my chances."
Johnson’s team-mate, Paul Radisich recovered from his qualifying disaster which saw him taken out by an out of control Dean Canto before he could post a competitive time. He climbed from 12th on the grid to finish fifth in the first race, fourth in the second and second in the last to finish fourth overall.
Skaife’s team-mate, Jason Bright continued with his consistent point scoring to finish fifth overall and he sits just 17-points behind Skaife on the leader board.
Marcos Ambrose’s sixth placing puts the Pirtek Ford rookie back into the top five in the championship, while Garth Tander’s weekend was better than many he has endured this year, finishing seventh overall.
Craig Lowndes struggled to produce competitive pace in his Gibson Falcon, coming home in 13th, while the K-mart Racing duo of Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy had their weekend marred by off-track excursions and midfield crashes.
The next round of the Shell Championship Series is at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway in a fortnight.
**CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE**
1st MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1720]
2nd JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1703]
3rd RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1496]
4th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon [1488]
5th MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1262]
6th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1248]
7th STEVEN RICHARDS (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1211]
8th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon [1185]
9th CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) - AU Falcon [1146]
10th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Repco Team) - VX Commodore [1080]
For complete race results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?15/07/2001.CALD
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