TOWNSVILLE COMES ALIVE ON DAY ONE OF V8 ACTION

Topics:  Dunlop Townsville 400

Stone Brothers Racing
July 10, 2009

Today’s beautiful Nth QLD weather set the scene for the first day on track at the Dunlop Townsville 400. Over 48,000 race fans turned out to soak up the sun and the atmosphere at the new purpose built temporary race facility. Today’s three-part Practice sessions was the first time the series drivers were able to experience the 2.87km circuit that has been years in the making.

In Part C of Practice Van Gisbergen managed to top the times with 13 minutes to go but was knocked off by Will Davison in the final stages finishing 6th overall. IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison finished 17th after making it as high as 9th in the times. The team opted not to use new sets of new tyres on either car in order to keep them in reserve for tomorrow’s qualifying. Ross Stone – SBR Team Principal “I think Townsville can be very proud of the circuit and facilities they now have. It’s great to be part of the inaugural race event in Nth QLD. “In practice today our cars were strong and fast, we were in the mix there for the most part of Practice which is a good start. We are looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow. “We have done our homework on getting good speed out of new tyres, we chose not to run any today in order to save them for tomorrow and Sunday’s qualifying. “The track is really hard on brakes and we are also seeing quite high tyre temperatures on the left hand side of the car, in particular the left rear as the car leans on that a lot. The circuit is going to make for interesting overtaking and entertaining racing.” The V8 Supercars take to the track at 10:30am tomorrow for Leg 1 of Qualifying.