R3 QUAL - Skaife, Ambrose resume battle
27/4/2002 17:37 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Holden’s Mark Skaife and Ford’s Marcos Ambrose are quickly developing an enthralling V8 Supercar rivalry, both qualifying on the front row of the grid at the third round of the championship at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway today.
It’s not at Brock verses Johnson levels yet, but heir apparent Ambrose’s bold bid to dethrone the reigning V8 king has enlivened what looked set to be a one-sided contest.
Skaife won out today, reversing the qualifying result at Phillip Island a fortnight ago when Ambrose snared pole.
But new drivers have emerged as challengers, surprisingly led by 46-year-old veteran John Faulkner. In a stunning upset, Faulkner came from nowhere to put his aging VT Commodore, one of the oldest cars in the fleet, into third.
Skaife, though, was brilliant. He sizzled in qualifying to grab provisional pole, only to clock an even faster time in the pressure-cooker environment of the top ten shootout.
"That was about as good as you can get," Skaife said of his shootout flier, a one-minute 31.38sec lap.
"It is a hard place to do a good lap, you need to be committed to each corner and you have no idea what the grip is going to be.”
Ambrose was good, but not Skaife good. He trailed the Holden Racing Team ace by more than six-tenths of a second.
"It was a beautiful lap by Skaife," Ambrose said. "He drove like a man possessed and now we have it front of us.”
Qualifying provided plenty of excitement, particularly the slower 50 percent group. Five drivers gatecrashed the top ten shootout from the slower group: Max Wilson, Garth Tander, Faulkner, Steven Ellery and Russell Ingall.
Faulkner’s show of speed was as unexpected as it was impressive. The man himself was the only person in pitlane not surprised.
"Just feeling the car this morning, I knew we had a chance at the top ten,” he said. "The car feels so much better, everything works now.
"We reengineered all the steering, (it’s) been plaguing us for two or three years. We've had four DNFs this year from four steering failures.”
Faulkner will start alongside struggling Ford driver Steven Ellery, making for a most unlikely second row.
Briggs Motorsport’s Wilson is a talent. The pint-sized Brazilian shot into second from the slower group and came out firing second last in the shootout. He’s yet to master the one-lap dash, today falling to eighth, but will challenge for future pole positions once he does.
Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy held onto fifth, ahead of Tander and Ingall. David Besnard and Steven Richards rounded out the top ten.
The surprise results from the second qualifying group denied Jason Bright, Todd Kelly, Craig Lowndes, John Bowe and Paul Radisich a chance of improving their positions in the shootout.
Meanwhile, Brad Jones booked himself another pre-qualifying date – his third – with a dismal performance today. Paul Weel, Jason Bargwanna (aboard the car miraculously resurrected after its horror crash a fortnight ago), Simon Wills, Craig Baird, Mark Larkham and Rodney Forbes also face pre-qualifying in the next round at Hidden Valley.
The order is only provisional, with the grid for tomorrow’s two 150km races certain to be shuffled by tonight’s 20-minute twilight dash, which was scheduled to start just after 5pm.
"We've got to come out of it (tonight’s race) reasonably well off,” Skaife said. “We've got to keep our head about finishing well tomorrow and scoring as many points as possible."
For qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?28/04/2002.ECIR.Q7
For top ten shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?28/04/2002.ECIR.Q9
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