R2 QUAL – Skaife, Ambrose in Island rematch
12/4/2003 17:32 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Mark Skaife has taken an early points lead in his heavyweight bout with Marcos Ambrose, with all indications the fight will go the distance.
Skaife claimed provisional pole in qualifying for round two of the series at a damp Phillip Island Raceway, and will defend top spot from Ambrose, second fastest, in tomorrow’s Top Ten Shootout.
It’s perhaps the best rivalry the V8 Supercar era has ever seen. Both won a race each at Phillip Island last year, both race winners in Adelaide last month.
And both threaten to turn the 2003 championship into a two-horse race.
Skaife clocked a one-minute 33.68sec flier around the drying 4.4km Grand Prix layout, just 0.02secs faster than Ambrose.
But both drivers aren’t getting excited. Tomorrow’s 300km event has team strategists scratching their heads, wondering how to get their cars to the line with just one compulsory tyre change.
Today, burning rubber was out of the question.
"This place really wears the tyres,” Ambrose said, “so we really only put down two quick laps and it's very satisfying to be second quickest.
"I'll aim to qualify in the first two rows, as we'll really focus on the race set-up and not a shootout specification for the top ten run off."
Skaife said a second tyre stop isn’t in the plans, but it will be touch and go.
“We’ll battle to get through on only one tyre stop and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves – or not going fast enough,” he said.
“Everywhere we’ve been with the VY it’s been fast in terms of one-lap speed, we’re just not sure how it will go in the race though.”
Each of Holden’s three strife-torn factory teams will be strongly represented in tomorrow’s shootout.
Skaife’s Holden Racing Team deputy, Todd Kelly qualified his VY-model Commodore in fourth. Team Brock’s Jason Bright finished third, while teammate Paul Weel will play track sweeper in tomorrow’s shootout from tenth. Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy finished sixth.
Holden’s Steven Richards and Garth Tander remain in pole contention also, qualifying in eighth and ninth respectively.
Again, Ambrose played a lone hand for Ford. Only Craig Lowndes, who put his Ford Performance Racing BA Falcon into fifth, and OzEmail Racing’s John Bowe (seventh) qualified for the pole runoff.
Russell Ingall vowed to continue his aggressive approach this weekend, and will need every ounce of it to fight his way from last on the grid. The Stone Brothers Racing recruit crashed out of practice, slipping on some oil at the high-speed turn one sweeper, and was unable to compete in qualifying.
"The car hit a gully and actually got air-born for a couple of seconds,” Ingall said. “I was probably lucky I did not end up on the roof.”
Young Kiwi Simon Wills was the standout driver from outside the top ten, qualifying Team Dynamik’s brand-new VY Commodore in 11th position.
From there it was only doom and gloom.
FPR's Glenn Seton and David Besnard are a lost cause in the old AU-model Falcons, qualifying 16th and 23rd respectively.
Ford’s Dick Johnson Racing and Briggs Motorsport faired no better, struggling to master the tricky conditions with their BA Falcons.
The Top Ten Shootout is scheduled for 11:50am tomorrow morning, ahead of the race start at 2pm. Channel Ten’s delayed coverage begins at 2:30pm.
Qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?13/04/2003.PHIL.Q7
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