R10 PRAC – Kerbs fail to curb Bright's flying Bathurst start
10/10/2002 18:23 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Glenn Seton knows better than anyone that practice pace at Mount Panorama is an unreliable form guide for Sunday’s 1000km classic.
Glenn Seton put a horror year behind him to post the third-fastest time
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But the Ford veteran was cautiously confident after surprising with the third-fastest time in this afternoon’s opening hour-long shakedown for the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000.
"The car was quick straight out of the box," he said after clocking a slick two-minute 10.73sec lap.
"We only had to make some minor changes and we were able to set a very good time right at the end of the session.”
Heartbreak Hill has been especially cruel to Seton, this year partnering Owen Kelly. He remains the most experienced and most successful V8 Supercar driver never to win at Bathurst, and it’s a void he’s desperate to fill.
"After a tough year where our practice performances haven't been all that good, it's great to start a weekend so well,” he said.
But it was the Holden Racing Team Commodores making a typically ominous start to the weekend.
Jason Bright, sharing the No. 2 car with veteran Tomas Mezera, set the fastest time, shading teammate Mark Skaife (co-driving with Jim Richard) in second by three-tenths.
"The tyres seem to like this surface," Bright said, "hopefully we'll have some dry running up to qualifying and we'll see some quick times.
"Of course we are where we want to be at the moment, but there's no point being number one in the first session if you are nowhere on Sunday."
Bright’s two-minute 10.39sec flier was just outside Skaife’s Thursday-record lap from last year, dispelling predictions the new Dunlop control tyre and a dramatic height increase in the kerbing would slow drivers.
The kerb height, up to eight centimetres higher than last year, did raise eyebrows. Reid Park is particularly unsettling, according to most drivers, and a group are lobbying officials to grind down the section before tomorrow’s qualifying session.
But it was a mostly trouble-free start to the weekend, with just one red flag when Bathurst rookie Robert McDonald spun his Commodore.
Bathurst immortal Larry Perkins set the fourth-quickest time in the car he’ll share with youngster Paul Dumbrell.
Queensland 500 winner David Besnard, this weekend teaming with motorcycle champion Wayne Gardner, was fifth.
“It is certainly pleasing to be this high up the order this early in proceedings,” said Besnard, who looked to be on an even quicker lap before a spin. “We did that time on ordinary tyres so I guess there is plenty left.”
The Stone Brothers Racing sister car of Marcos Ambrose and Paul Weel finished seventh-fastest at the hands of Ambrose, behind the Kmart Commodore of Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly.
Other promising performances came from Briggs Motorsport’s Tony Longhurst, Orrcon Racing’s Mark Larkham and Toll Racing’s Anthony Tratt, who finished ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively.
Craig Lowndes was “very happy” to be 14th, but promised more speed from the Ford he shares with Neil Crompton tomorrow.
The OzEmail Racing Falcon of Brad Jones and John Bowe ran for four laps before a mystery fault sidelined the pair from the session.
The biggest cheer from the 28,000-strong crowd was reserved for the man who finished 20th – returning champion Peter Brock.
It quickly became second nature again for the 57-year-old, he said, after reporting no problems with his strikingly all-black Commodore.
"It is fantastic, I loved it," he said. "After a lap or so I stopped thinking about anything and started to do it all automatically. Brake here, blip the throttle there, it was like I'd never been away."
Another hour of practice is scheduled for tomorrow morning, before drivers attempt to qualify for Saturday morning’s Top 15 Shootout.
Practice one results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?13/10/2002.MOUN.P5
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