R5 QUAL – Murph, Holden hit back at Barbagallo
7/6/2003 17:52 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Holden and Greg Murphy proved they aren’t finished yet, taking pole position for tonight’s first 100km race at the VB 300 at Barbagallo Raceway.
The Kiwi, still livid over a race-destroying penalty in the last round, hit back with a sensational 58.2sec lap in the Top Ten Shootout for pole, out-gunning Holden stable-mate Mark Skaife by just 0.04secs.
Ford’s Marcos Ambrose, on a championship hat trick after wins at Eastern Creek and Winton, could only manage the third fastest time.
“That was fantastic, it was great,” Murphy said.
“We’ve all had a tough couple of weeks, so it is great to great to come back with that.”
Murphy was also fastest ahead of Skaife in the interrupted provisional qualifying session.
Paul Weel caused the drama, ripping an oil line from his car as he left the circuit at Kolb Corner and leaving a slick trail in his wake. The mess essentially ended the qualifying session ten minutes early, slowing the track by up to three seconds.
It allowed Craig Lowndes, Garth Tander and Glenn Seton, seventh to ninth respectively, to hold onto their top ten positions from the slower qualifying group.
And Ford privateer Mark Noske caused the biggest upset, grabbing his first shootout start in the older-model AU Falcon. He qualified tenth.
Steven Richards clocked the fourth fastest time in the Shootout, jumping from tenth in qualifying.
Championship leader Jason Bright was fifth, ahead of Simon Wills in another impressive performance for the Adelaide-based Team Dynamik.
The oil meant there were no last-gasp heroics from outside the top ten, with Holden’s Kelly brothers and Stone Brothers Racing’s Russell Ingall among those to leave their run too late. Todd Kelly will start from 11th, Rick 12th, and Ingall from a lowly 16th.
Race one was due to start at 4:10pm local time.
Qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?08/06/2003.BARB.Q6
Top Ten Shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?08/06/2003.BARB.Q8
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