SER: Beware of Super Cheap Auto Racing
13/9/2003 21:18 (Press Release) -
Competitors beware, Super Cheap Auto Racing has a vehicle that could win them tomorrow's Sandown 500.
This message comes after Steve Ellery narrowly missed out on putting his Ford BA on one of the top three starting spots in this afternoon's top-ten shootout.
Ellery was enjoying one of his best weekends of the year, qualifying the Falcon in fifth place, before being forced to settle for tenth after a spin in the shootout.
"I was really going for it in the shootout and I spun, sometimes these things happen, I don't like that it happened but it did," Steve Ellery said.
"The positive is that I was aiming to start tomorrow's race in the top-ten and I'm there.
"Five-hundred kilometres is quite an outing and anything can happen.
"If you ask me whether we've got a chance at winning the race, my answer is sure, we're in with a shot."
Prior to the shootout spin, Ellery was on a lap that would have placed him in the top three.
"Marcos Ambrose was the only one to beat my first sector time, and Marcos and Mark Skaife were the only drivers to beat me in the second sector, so things were looking good for third," Ellery said.
"But having said that, once a good lap is posted everyone still has to beat it, so I might have been able to improve on third.
"No one has talked about us as a threat yet, now maybe they should."
Ellery puts the improvement down to the team's engine development program.
"We've been working hard to improve our engines over the last several rounds and our efforts are starting to show results," Ellery said.
"Craig Hasted came on board and his engine input has really helped us along. Ian 'Wally' Walburn and Craig are a great team and together they have taken our engines to new levels.
"We've developed the rest of the car strongly as well, and I'm sure people have noticed this.
"I think that we're now a serious top-ten competitor, and our recent results are proving this."
Aside from the BA's performance, Ellery is thrilled with co-driver Luke Youlden's efforts this weekend.
"Luke's done a tremendous job for us so far, he's improving every lap that he's in the car," Ellery said.
"His confidence, like mine, is sky-high. The team is sure that he will put in a good race for us tomorrow.
"Luke's really improved a lot over the last twelve months, he's definitely a better driver than he was last year."
The Betta Electrical Sandown 500 starts at 1pm tomorrow.
--Steve Ellery Racing press release
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