R2 PRE-QUAL - Morris ousted in dramatic showdown
13/4/2002 12:15 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Brad Jones believes the V8 Supercar category is in danger of alienating corporate backers, after a dramatic day of pre-qualifying at Phillip Island Raceway today.
The OzEmail racer easily secured a position on the grid for this weekend’s second round of the V8 Supercar series, but six other drivers, including 2001 round winner Paul Morris, were all expelled from the event.
Two days after the Supreme Court of Victoria gave the seal of approval to AVESCO’s restricted grid capacity policy, a number of high-profile, well-supported entries have been cruelly culled from the field.
Morris, Matthew White, Cameron McLean, Anthony Tratt, Tomas Mezera and the third Dick Johnson Racing Falcon of Greg Ritter all failed to qualify for the weekend’s racing.
Jones warned it could come at the expense of the sport.
"There are very committed motorsport sponsors like VIP Petfoods, Sirromet Wines and Toll Ipec that will now get no value this weekend for their millions of dollars of investment into our sport," he said.
"We are bordering on burning some of the corporate backers that are the backbone of our sport and you just can’t afford to do that these days. I can understand the need to have a fixed grip capacity but at the same time we cannot forget that it is sponsorship dollars that drive motorsport in this country."
Morris, who only recently signed a sponsorship deal with Sirromet, missed a place on the grid by less than a tenth of a second.
"It (Morris’ VX Commodore) ran on seven cylinders for the whole session, it dropped one as soon as I left pitlane," he explained, stunned by his premature departure. "I was trying pretty hard, they said I only had to make up one-tenth. It is pretty disappointing."
Ritter was robbed of his much-anticipated solo championship debut after finishing ninth fastest, one behind Morris.
"I'm very disappointed," he said. "I expected this to be my first chance to race competitively at the front of the V8 Supercar field, but it's not to be."
McLean was sidelined for a number of races last season as a result of an acrimonious divorce from his former sponsor. After securing dedicated support from VIP Petfoods this season, missing the cut is a bitter pill to swallow.
Paul Radisich, not surprisingly, topped the pre-qualifying time sheets. The championship-contending Kiwi left nothing to chance, clocking a slick one-minute 34.11sec fastest lap to be almost half a second faster than Jones in overcast but dry conditions.
"Today's pre-qualifier was really more of a formality," Radisich said.
00 Motorsport’s Rodney Forbes also qualified, along with Cameron McConville, Paul Weel and John Faulkner.
In an ironic twist, Dugal McDougall, who brought the legal action against AVESCO to try and increase grid capacity, won the seventh and final grid position.
Provisional practice gets underway tomorrow morning.
For complete pre-qualifying results: click here.
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