R3 QUAL – Walk in the Park for Paul, as Brede struggles
15/6/2002 20:38 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Paul Dumbrell took another significant step towards the Konica V8 Supercar Series trophy at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway today, easily securing pole position ahead of tomorrow’s third round.
The Victorian teenager was fastest by more than half a second in the pole shootout, clocking a one-minute 9.54sec quickest lap, leaving main championship rival Dale Brede in his wake.
Dumbrell, a last-round winner at Phillip Island, holds a 55-point advantage over Brede in the five-round series.
Veteran racer Greg Crick upset the youth brigade by putting his Halliday Motorsport Falcon onto the front row.
And Kiwi Mark Porter continued to impress in a Paul Weel Racing-prepared Ford, clocking the third fastest time.
But Brede was “pretty disappointed” with his performance, wrestling an unbalanced Falcon to fourth on the grid.
“We came here knowing we had to stay in touch with Paul [Dumbrell] and to qualify fourth really isn’t where we should be,” he said.
Worse still, the Canberra-based driver flat-spotted five tyres as he shook down the car in morning practice.
“We think we have found an area now that may have cost us some time, so we will spend tonight fixing that and trying to make the Gulf Western Falcon very competitive for tomorrow,” he said.
Matthew White’s Commodore, freshly painted in the brown and gold colours of newly dedicated sponsor VIP Petfoods, will feature on the third row, alongside the Imrie Motorsport Holden of Steve Owen.
Making her return to the series after an enforced layoff, Leanne Ferrier will start her aging Commodore from seventh.
Three races will decide tomorrow’s victor: two 20-minute sprints and a final 35-minute staying test. The first race begins at 11:20am.
Qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?16/06/2002.ORAN.Q6
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