INDY QUAL - Pole to Tander in slippery shootout
26/10/2001 21:17 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Garth Tander wasn’t fazed by the slippery streets of Surfers Paradise this afternoon, claiming pole position for Indy’s V8 Supercar challenge.
While the afternoon CART session was cancelled due to the unseasonably inclement weather conditions, the V8 Superstars agreed to brave the rain and put on a shootout show.
Tander tiptoed around the 4.4km street course in a time of 2:09.48 to snare pole – his first in well over a year.
“We haven’t had the best luck this year,” Tander said, “so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.”
Conditions eased mid-way through the shootout to allow Tander, who was fourth-fastest in this morning’s drier provisional qualifying session, his quick lap.
Craig Lowndes also got the best of the conditions to grab a front row birth (albeit more than seven-tenths slower than Tander), ahead of Mark Skaife and a vintage Larry Perkins.
“The conditions out there today were trying to say the least,” said Lowndes, who is driving his original Falcon in favour of Gibson Motorsport's New Zealand-bound car.
Defending Indy champ Paul Radisich easily clocked the fastest time in qualifying, a 2:06.55min best lap, but the heavens opened moments before his shootout flier, forcing ‘the Rat’ to settle for a spot on the third row. And he wasn’t happy.
"It's a pretty stupid situation, really," he said.
"They weren't going to run the top ten to start with, then they said they would but if it rained they'd revert to the qualifying times. Then when I went to see them about it afterwards, they'd decided to stick with the top ten times after all!"
Rules state qualifying times will stand if conditions don't allow for a fair shootout session, though a meeting of drivers and officials before the event saw it go ahead and all times count.
"I think it's totally unfair," Radisich said.
Local ace Mark Larkham was a welcome addition to the top six, though his shootout time was disallowed for cutting across the chicane on the back straight, relegating him to tenth.
Friday speedster Russell Ingall won't be a serious contender from eleventh, while K-Mart chargers Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy were at a loss to explain their position on the last row of the 26-car grid.
Meanwhile, Jason Bright, who was steering an Indy car around the Gold Coast streets this time last year, was still suffering the effects of tonsillitis this morning and elected to withdraw from the event. He flew back to Melbourne this afternoon.
The rain is expected to clear for tomorrow’s festivities, including two 30-minute sprints for the V8 Supercars. The first race begins at 11:30am.
>> QUALIFYING – TOP TEN >>
1st PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) – AU Falcon [2:06.5536min]
2nd MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) – VX Commodore [2:07.1776]
3rd CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) – AU Falcon [2:07.2317]
4th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:07.6598]
5th LARRY PERKINS (Castrol Perkins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:07.8768]
6th MARK LARKHAM (Larkham Motorsport) – AU Falcon [2:08.0053]
7th GLENN SETON (Ford Tickford Racing) – AU Falcon [2:08.0424]
8th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Racing) – AU Falcon [2:08.4195]
9th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) – AU Falcon [2:08.4316]
10th JASON BARGWANNA (Valvoline Cummins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:08.4555]
>> TOP TEN SHOOTOUT >>
1st GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:09.0022min]
2nd CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) – AU Falcon [2:09.7593]
3rd MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) – VX Commodore [2:10.0732]
4th LARRY PERKINS (Castrol Perkins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:10.4813]
5th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) – AU Falcon [2:10.9575]
6th GLENN SETON (Ford Tickford Racing) – AU Falcon [2:11.0101]
7th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Racing) – AU Falcon [2:11.3740]
8th STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) – AU Falcon [2:11.5287]
9th JASON BARGWANNA (Valvoline Cummins Race Team) – VX Commodore [2:12.1786]
10th MARK LARKHAM (Larkham Motorsport) – AU Falcon
For complete qualifying/shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?07/10/2001.MOUN
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