BJR: Bowe and Jones to start from eighth
13/9/2003 17:34 (Press Release) -
One of the favourite Ford teams to take out tomorrow’s Sandown 500, OzEmail Racing’s duo of Brad Jones and John Bowe, will start the race from eighth position.
After being the second fastest team in yesterday’s practice session, the pair are a little disappointed with today’s effort.
“We were eighth fastest at the end of the regular qualifying session and ended up in the same position after the Top Ten Shootout,” said Bowe, who qualified the #21 OzEmail Falcon.
“We did say yesterday after being second fastest that anything could happen and I guess it has. It was really difficult to get temperature into the tyres on the single flying lap of the shootout and my time showed it,” Bowe added.
“At the end of the day, we did the best we could do and I’d much rather be starting from eighth than twenty eighth,” Bowe concluded.
Whilst not entirely happy with the qualifying result, team boss Brad Jones is still full of confidence for tomorrow’s 500km race – “I’m actually quite happy that we are at least starting from inside the top ten. The race is a long distance, so the difference between second and eighth is not as important as one of the shorter races.”
“Nothing has changed my opinion that we are still a real chance to win tomorrow,” Jones concluded.
The black OzEmail Falcon will start from 19th position after young driver Andrew Jones completing a sterling effort in the qualifying session.
Competing in the lower 50 percent qualifying bracket, Jones set a time of one-minute 11.8secs, the fourth fastest time in the opening session. His lap time good enough to beat a number of the upper 50 percent bracket qualifiers with several more fancied teams placed behind the Jones/Cleland outfit.
“Today was a great learning experience and overall I’m pretty happy with where we ended up. We had a goal of qualifying inside the top twenty and we’ve managed to do that,” said Andrew Jones.
The highly experienced British-based John Cleland was full of praise for Jones’ first-time V8 Supercar Series qualifying effort plus has asked Mother Nature for a touch of help.
“Andrew did a good job today and showed a lot of maturity in the pressure-cooker situation. Starting from 19th is a good position for us but if the rain comes that is forecast, watch out for the black OzEmail Falcon, we’ll be right up there,” Cleland concluded.
John Cleland is considered one of the best wet weather drivers to ever race in Australia.
--Brad Jones Racing press release
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