R8 QUAL – Almost-perfect Ambrose catches HRT napping
17/8/2002 18:39 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
One-lap wonder Marcos Ambrose needed one of the best laps of his brilliant career to win pole position and upset the fierce Winton Raceway natives in qualifying for round eight of the V8 Supercar championship.
The Queensland-based qualifying specialist blasted from third in qualifying to his third pole of the year, and second in succession, with a stunning lap in the top ten shootout.
“That was probably the best lap I have ever done except for my pole lap at Bathurst last year,” Ambrose said of his on-the-edge one-minute 22.94sec flier, four-tenths quicker than home-track favourite and championship leader Mark Skaife.
“I actually carried too much speed through the first couple of corners, but once I got through them okay I knew I was on a flyer. It was almost the perfect lap."
Ambrose starts on pole every 3.5 races on average, bettered only by Allan Moffat on the all-time list.
Ambrose and Stone Brothers Racing teammate David Besnard (who qualified tenth) were the only drivers who don’t test at Winton to make the shootout.
“I guess we caught them [the Victorian-based teams] sleeping a little,” Ambrose said.
Indeed they did. Skaife’s lap just wasn’t as slick, while teammate Jason Bright failed to convert his provisional pole position into a shootout win.
"I made a couple of mistakes, as soon as you get out of the groove here you lose a lot of speed,” Bright said. “It was not a very good lap, and not one I am proud of."
Still, the factory Commodores are positioned for a first-corner raid on Ambrose in tomorrow’s first of two 100km races, despite the team not having won at Winton since the inception of the V8 racing formula a decade ago.
With a testing base at Winton, the mighty TWR conglomerate was always going to be strong. K-Mart Racing’s Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy were the next best in fourth and fifth, while teenage Young Lion Rick Kelly clocked the eighth quickest time.
Garth Tander was sixth, ahead of OzEmail Racing’s John Bowe. OzEmail boss Brad Jones just missed a shootout start in 11th.
“Last year at Winton I qualified in exactly the same position and the whole team were ecstatic,” Jones said. “This year we are bitterly disappointed. I guess it shows just how far we have come in such a short time.”
00 Motorsport’s Craig Lowndes finished a “somewhat disappointing” ninth.
Two-time Winton winner, Jason Bargwanna was 12th quickest, ahead of the Castrol Commodores of Russell Ingall and Steven Richards. With Perkins in 16th, none of the Castrol drivers managed a shootout appearance at their home circuit.
Steve Owen, a last-minute replacement for Simon Wills in the CAT Falcon, was a not unrespectable 27th on debut for Briggs Motorsport.
Far more shameful were the Dick Johnson Racing Falcons of Paul Radisich and Steven Johnson. Radisich was 32nd, Johnson 33rd, in another embarrassing performance from the once proud Queensland-based outfit.
Race one starts at 11:30am tomorrow morning.
Qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?18/08/2002.WIN.Q7
Top ten shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?18/08/2002.WIN.Q9
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