AGP RACE 1 – Bright start to Supercar year
1/3/2002 20:40 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Jason Bright scored a small but significant victory in his likely year-long battle with champion teammate Mark Skaife today, winning the opening race of the Grand Prix V8 Supercar Challenge.
As the Ferraris dominated early practice for Sunday’s Formula One main event, Bright’s red rocketship also led from the front, winning the 30-minute race by almost four seconds from Steven Johnson and Russell Ingall.
After squeezing past Skaife at the start, Ingall challenged Johnson for second before the race's only safety car on lap four, to recover Rick Kelly’s beached Young Lion Commodore, stalled his forward momentum.
Skaife had an eventful afternoon, running wide on a corner early in the race, relegating him to seventh. He recovered to grab a spot in the top five, setting the fastest lap of the race along the way.
Marcos Ambrose didn’t win friends when he spun at turn 14 on the opening lap, brushing past his teammate David Besnard before clashing with an irate Larry Perkins. Besnard continued unscathed, but Ambrose and Perkins finished 13th and 26th respectively.
“I made a mistake on the second-last turn and spun and that was basically my race,” Ambrose said.
Paul Radisich climbed four positions to finish fourth, while K-Mart racer Greg Murphy stormed through the field from 17th after a wretched qualifying performance to claim seventh.
Not to be outdone, Cameron McLean, starting on the third-last row of the grid, scrambled up the timing board to finish 16th – a 13-position gain.
Mark Larkham, who started from the rear of grid when his Orrcon Falcon misfired, OzEmail Racing’s John Bowe, debutant Max Wilson and Cameron McConville all failed to finish.
After the race, Bright said the new Dunlop control tyre continued to perform well.
"The Dunlops seem a lot more durable (than last year's Bridgestone tyre), I didn't expect to be doing low 59sec laps at the end of the race," he said.
Tomorrow’s second of three races follows final Formula One qualifying at 2:25pm.
>> AGP V8 SUPERCAR CHALLENGE - RACE ONE >>
1st JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
2nd STEVEN JOHNSON (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon
3rd RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins) - VX Commodore
4th PAUL RADISICH (Shell Helix Racing) - AU Falcon
5th MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore
6th STEVEN RICHARDS (Castrol Perkins) - VX Commodore
7th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore
8th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline Cummins Repco) - VX Commodore
9th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Racing) - AU Falcon
10th STEVEN ELLERY (Super Cheap Auto Racing) - AU Falcon
For complete race results:
http://www.v8supercar.com.au/calendars/clndrevent.asp?eid=96
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