SER: Second for Ellery & Youlden at Sandown 500
15/9/2003 12:14 (Press Release) -
Super Cheap Auto Racing's Steve Ellery and Luke Youlden have taken second place at the Betta Electrical Sandown 500 in Melbourne this afternoon.
Ellery described the second placing as good as win.
"Today has been absolutely brilliant for the team and for Super Cheap Auto," an ecstatic Steve Ellery said.
"Second is like a win for us, we're a single car team with eight full-timers, this means so much for us all.
"It's really lifted our spirits, we were confident that we had a car that would get us into the top ten, but secretly I was hoping for top six.
"I always thought that if I could drive the first stint strongly and get us near the top three then we could bring it home for a podium."
Ellery starting from tenth had a wonderful first stint driving his way through the field to take fourth place before handing over the Ford to Luke Youlden who brought it home.
"I was really going for it today, I wanted to put us in a strong position before I handed it over to Luke [Youlden]," Ellery said.
"I managed to take us from tenth at the start to fourth at the hand-over, from there Luke did a superb job bringing it home.
"I can't speak about Luke highly enough, he really had to battle with the conditions out there this afternoon.
"He kept his cool the entire time, held his focus and was very mature in his approach.
"We couldn't have asked him to do any more than he did today."
For Super Cheap Auto Racing this weekend's event marks the first time that Ellery has been on the podium since Sandown 2000, where he also finished second.
"Today's placing is definitely right up there with the best results of my career," Ellery said.
"The Sandown 2000 race win was amazing but today we were second in a 500km endurance race, this is special, very special.
"Every podium is a buzz, it's been a long time coming, and good timing."
Ellery said that the podium couldn't have come at a better time, with the team in negotiations with their sponsor Super Cheap Auto for 2004.
"I'm so happy to be able to give this to Super Cheap Auto, we have worked so hard for them so it's great to be able to deliver," Ellery said.
"We've been steadily improving over the last few rounds so we knew a good result wasn't far away.
"The BA is getting better and better, it's fast, it's engine power has improved, the team are all so committed and my confidence is sky high, there's no reason why we can't continue to do good things."
For Luke Youlden, today's result was a dream come true given the weather conditions and the pressure.
"It was really tough out there this afternoon, particularly when the hail came down," Luke Youlden said.
"I was feeling the pressure. My race engineer got on the radio and said that if I went off it better be behind a tree so they couldn't find the car, or me!
"The weather was horrible, up at Dandenong Road I thought it was snowing, the hail was six-inches deep.
"I thought they might red flag the race at one stage.
"When the safety car came out after Paul Dumbrell went off I was told to just play it safe and bring it home.
"When I crossed the line I didn't even know what place we'd finished in,
when they said second I couldn't believe it.
"It's so good for the team, we've all worked so hard, it's great to have a result."
In celebration, team owner Bruce Ellery cancelled all flights for the team and booked everyone into the Hilton Hotel so they could celebrate today's podium in style.
"The team deserve to enjoy today's result," Bruce Ellery said.
"We've been on the pace all weekend, we earned this result.
"Everyone's worked so hard, their commitment to the team has been faultless. I'm over the moon and so should the rest of the team."
--Steve Ellery Racing press release
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