R13S S'OUT - Skaife bags number four
1/12/2001 12:20 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Mark Skaife will, fittingly, start from pole position at the final round of the season, the V8 Ultimate at Sandown Raceway, after bagging his fourth pole of the year in this morning’s Top Fifteen Shootout.
With the championship clinched, a relaxed Skaife proved he is the undisputed shootout specialist with a consummate, if not ugly, 1:11.25min lap around the 3.1km circuit.
“I got away with a bit of a lock-up today,” Skaife said. “I was going for a ten-out-of-ten lap today because I can afford to be a bit of a risk-taker given the championship is already sealed.
"It’s still going to be a pretty tough weekend, as we saw with about 20 cars within about a second of each other in qualifying."
Skaife will share the front row with K-Mart Racing stable-mate Greg Murphy, who was a tenth slower in his Commodore.
And Todd Kelly made it a TWR trifecta, making the most of his provisional pole position to clinch third on the grid.
Jason Bright also retained his position in the top five. He’ll battle with Russell Ingall for the vice-championship from the third row of the grid.
Ford’s Marcos Ambrose was the big improver, jumping from tenth in provisional qualifying yesterday to grab a position on the second row.
Ambrose has three Shell Series poles to his name this year, only surpassed by Skaife's efforts today.
Ingall improved to sixth, ahead of Paul Radisich and Steven Ellery. Ellery, who won a race at Sandown last year, climbed six positions to secure eighth on the grid.
Glenn Seton made a similar assent to record the ninth fastest time, ahead of Larry Perkins and Steven Richards.
Craig Lowndes’ slippery shootout lap saw him drop from second to fourteenth.
Today’s 48-lap first race begins at 2pm local time.
>> TOP FIFTEEN SHOOTOUT >>
1st MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:11.2564min]
2nd GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:11.3574]
3rd TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:11.4480]
4th MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1:11.4927]
5th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:11.5005]
6th RUSSELL INGALL (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore [1:11.7299]
7th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon [1:11.7426]
8th STEVEN ELLERY (Super Cheap Auto Racing) - AU Falcon [1:11.7790]
9th GLENN SETON (Ford Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:11.9256]
10th LARRY PERKINS (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore [1:12.0316]
11th STEVEN RICHARDS (Ford Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:12.2845]
12th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Race Team) - AU Falcon [1:12.2946]
13th PAUL MORRIS (Big Kev Racer) - VX Commodore [1:12.3404]
14th CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) - AU Falcon [1:12.3617]
15th SIMON WILLS (CAT Racing) - AU Falcon [1:12.8046]
For complete warm-up/shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?02/12/2001.SAN
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