R10S RACES - Enforcer back in winners' circle
9/9/2001 18:49 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Russell Ingall has won round ten of the Shell Championship Series at Winton Raceway, evading the championship-leading Holden Racing Team.
Ingall won the final 100km race this afternoon to clinch the overall round win, his first since the 1999 Queensland 500, after finishing second to Greg Murphy in the opening encounter earlier in the day.
Murphy finished second overall, ahead of the unfailingly consistent Mark Skaife.
"It's been a while between drinks, hasn't it?" Ingall said.
"This is a great result for a few reasons. First, because it is great for our championship hopes and second because the car showed it had some great speed and that is good news with Bathurst being the next round in four weeks."
The victory takes Ingall to third in the series, jumping ahead of Steven Johnson, but still some 217 points behind Skaife in the championship chase.
“We will be giving it a good nudge,” Ingall said of his Shell Series hopes. “The fans want to see the title go down to the wire and it looks like that's the way it will pan out."
Mark Skaife finished third and second in today’s two races; a remarkable effort considering a costly mistake in yesterday’s qualifying had him starting from 15th on the grid.
"I would certainly have preferred not to have started from 15th today,” said Skaife. “But after the bad call the team made yesterday, if you had have come to me this morning and offered me third overall I would have taken it in a flash.”
After a treacherously wet qualifying day, skies over the 3km north-east Victorian circuit were mostly fine for today’s racing.
From pole, Ingall got the jump on Paul Morris in the first race to lead unscathed into the first corner.
In his wake, a first corner melee, triggered by Tony Longhurst, left cars strewed across the infield, including Jason Bright, Marcos Ambrose, Steven Ellery, Glenn Seton, Cameron McLean and Brad Jones. Most rejoined the track, though Seton was forced into retirement with terminal damage.
Skaife used the opportunity to slice through the field, pushing into seventh over the opening laps.
The Holden Racing Team spearhead then took an early stop on lap four, ahead of Ingall and Murphy a lap later. Skaife clawed further ahead, while a lightening-fast stop from the K-Mart Racing Team allowed Murphy to snatch the lead from Ingall.
After being tangled in the first lap altercation, Marcos Ambrose used a clear track to gain the advantage, waiting until lap 13 to pit for tyres. A slick stop by the Stone Brothers’ crew left Ambrose in eleventh.
With incredible pace, he then proceeded to pass five cars over a handful of laps to eventually finish fifth.
The safety car made an appearance on lap 22 and, after the restart on lap 25, was required again when Cameron McConville was crunched between two cars and Tony Longhurst and Jason Richards, among others, spun off the circuit.
As the field, led by Murphy, paraded around under the yellow flag, officials finally aborted the race two laps from the finish.
Race two, and Ingall again got the jump from Murphy in a relatively clean start.
The Castrol Commodore was the first into pitlane on lap four, a lap before Mark Skaife. Murphy’s stop on lap six was a botched affair, needing more than 21 seconds (almost double that of Ingall) to change four tyres.
“We had a problem with the left rear tyre...which cost us some time,” Murphy explained.
On lap 13, Cameron McConville had a seemingly innocuous lose at turn four but hit the concrete barrier at the wrong angle and flipped his Lansvale Commodore on its roof. McConville was unhurt in the incident and damage to the car superficial.
After a safety car period, the race was restarted on lap 18 marking the beginning of a tense three-way battle up front between Ingall, Skaife and Ambrose. They retained their positions to the chequered flag, though not before another spirited display from Ambrose to unsuccessfully gain the upper hand on Skaife.
"The car was just great today,” Ambrose said. “If we qualified better we would have won the round!”
Order was largely maintained at Winton today (though an outpaced Steven Johnson lost ground on the factory Holdens), setting up a delectable do-or-die title fight at Mt. Panorama, round eleven of the Shell Series, next month.
**RACE ONE - TOP TEN**
1st GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore
2nd RUSSELL INGALL (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore
3rd MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
4th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
5th MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon
6th PAUL MORRIS (Big Kev Racer) - VT Commodore
7th JASON BARGWANNA (Valvoline Cummins Repco Team) - VX Commodore
8th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon
9th MARK LARKHAM (Larkham Motorsport) - AU Falcon
10th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Repco Team) - VX Commodore
**RACE TWO - TOP TEN**
1st RUSSELL INGALL (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore
2nd MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
3rd MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon
4th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
5th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon
6th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore
7th PAUL MORRIS (Big Kev Racer) - VT Commodore
8th STEVEN ELLERY (Super Cheap Auto Racing) - AU Falcon
9th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon
10th GLENN SETON (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon
**CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE**
1st MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [2498]
2nd JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [2371]
3rd RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [2281]
4th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon [2217]
5th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1842]
6th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon [1836]
7th TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1644]
8th MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1611]
9th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Repco Team) - VX Commodore [1479]
10th STEVEN ELLERY (Super Cheap Auto Racing) - AU Falcon [1477]
For complete race results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?09/09/2001.WIN
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