R10 QUAL – OzeMales snare provisional pole
11/10/2002 17:51 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Veteran V8 Supercar stalwart John Bowe turned back the clock and then gave it a good beating with a sensational qualifying performance at the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst.
John Bowe put the OzEmail Falcon he shares with Brad Jones on provisional pole with a new qualifying record
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The 48-year-old stubbornly planted the OzEmail Falcon he shares with Brad Jones on provisional pole with the fastest V8 Supercar lap of Mount Panorama ever, a two-minute 8.38sec stunner.
"It's certainly a lap for the old guard, that's for sure," the two-time Bathurst champion said.
"The lap was a good one, but nothing too special. If pressed I could have gone quicker again.”
He upset the Holden Racing Team’s Bathurst juggernaut – as Jones and then co-driver John Cleland came so close to doing in last year’s race.
The OzEmail duo’s odds of winning the race will shorten dramatically tonight, on the back of the withdrawal of fancied Stone Brothers Racing pair David Besnard and Wayne Gardner.
Mark Skaife led HRT’s charge, clocking a time just 0.01secs slower than Bowe to sit second in the order with co-driver Jim Richards.
Teammates Jason Bright and Tomas Mezera were third; Bright having two off-track excursions in his chase for top spot.
The lead Castrol Commodore of Russell Ingall and Steven Richards are similarly well placed ahead of tomorrow morning’s prestigious Top 15 Shootout, sitting fourth. Team boss Larry Perkins stormed into the shootout from the slower qualifying group, setting the ninth-fastest time.
Craig Lowndes and Neil Crompton have the next best Ford in fifth, ahead of Bathurst rookie but qualifying specialist Max Wilson in the Briggs Motorsport Ford.
Super Cheap Auto Racing’s Steven Ellery and Luke Youlden have been impressively quick this weekend, today setting the seventh-fastest time. Former Bathurst winners Garth Tander and Jason Bargwanna were eighth in their Commodore.
"I reckon that today is our best day of the season so far," an excited Ellery said. "The whole team are bloody happy with that position."
Last year’s Bathurst pole man, Marcos Ambrose could only manage 11th in the remaining SBR Falcon, one ahead of the Kmart Commodore of Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly, almost one and a half seconds slower than Bowe.
“We are not fast enough, simply as that,” Ambrose said, sharing the Pirtek car with Paul Weel. “We will work on it tonight and hopefully be closer tomorrow.”
Glenn Seton turned yesterday’s promising practice performance into a shootout spot, climbing to 12th from the slower group.
"The track had so much junk on it that just making the top 15 was a great achievement," he said, referring to an oil spill and a small grass fire that interrupted the first session.
It was Greg Ritter’s Falcon that dropped the oil, blowing an engine late in the session, but he did enough to earn another shot at pole tomorrow. He snuck into 15th, ahead of surprise shootout starters Paul Morris and Wayne Wakefield in their Commodore and the Holden Young Lions entry of Rick Kelly and Nathan Pretty.
Ritter and Alan Jones’ Falcon is the lone Dick Johnson Racing entry in the top 15, with regular campaigners Steven Johnson and Paul Radisich struggling to 22nd.
Crowd favourite Peter Brock will start the great race from an unfamiliar 26th position on the grid, a disappointing result considering the team’s top 15 qualifying performance at the Queensland 500.
The ride through Reid Park will be safer for tomorrow's shootout, with officials agreeing to shave the kerbing by 60mm tonight after angry objections over the kerb height from drivers.
The shootout for pole is scheduled for 10am, before a final practice session in the afternoon.
Qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?13/10/2002.MOUN.Q5
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