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SBR LEFT OUT IN THE COLD AT HAMILTON

Topics: ITM 400 Hamilton

SBR LEFT OUT IN THE COLD AT HAMILTON

Stone Brothers Racing
April 17, 2010

Stone Brothers Racing were left making up the back numbers in today’s race after poor qualifying results left all three cars struggling to make progress on the streets of Hamilton. IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison was the only SBR driver to finish the 59 lap race managing to keep his nose relatively clean to finish 18th. Davison was looking good for a top 15 result but fell victim to an incident mid-field in the dying stages of the race.

Home town hero, Shane van Gisbergen’s race was over on the first lap after he was forced wide hitting the wall at Turn 3. Van Gisbergen was quick to rectify the incident but made contact with Russell Ingall when trying to get back in the race due to bent steering in the #9 FG Falcon. The damage sustained to the #9 SP Tools Racing Falcon meant van Gisbergen was unable to press on in the race.

It was an engine failure that put Wilson Security Racing’s Tim Slade out of today’s race. Slade raced for 44 laps but was left stranded up the escape road when the engine in the #47 car lost power.

The races end result means van Gisbergen has dropped from 4th to 6th in the Championship standings but has a good bank of unused tyres for tomorrow to make a comeback in the second race.

Alex Davison – Driver, IRWIN Racing Car #4

“We had reasonable speed on fresh tyres but as soon as the shine wore off we really struggled. The car just wasn’t looking after its tyres well and we had too much over-steer.

“In the second stint when we put fresh tyres on we got going again and were really fast but the same thing happened and they just wore out and then unfortunately I was caught up in drama at Turn 2.

“I thought I had avoided it, I went to the inside but Todd Kelly had spun around and I had nowhere to go, so I just had to stop and wait till he got going again. We lost a couple of spots out of that incident.”

Tim Slade – Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

“Starting that far back I knew I would have to drive pretty cautious in order to make it to the end, typically like Clipsal there are always a few incidents around this place so we were planning to just keep it on the black stuff and maintain consistent pace thinking we would probably end up around 15th by the end of it.

“We were on target for a top 15 finish based on who we were racing with but then I started to notice a strange sound in the engine just after our first stop. It sounded like a header was cracked or something but it hadn’t dropped power at that stage.

“When it did start to lose a bit of power I radioed through to the team to see if they wanted me to press on, they responded saying all the telemetry and data was saying it was all fine so we kept going.

“When I came out of turn 6 the engine dropped power, I managed to drive it around part throttle but when I got to the last corner it completely died so I went up the escape road and it was all over.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Racing Car #9

“It was just a typical case of people trying to win the race on the first lap. At turn 3, I think it was Bargwanna, just got on the inside of me and from that point on I was just a passenger.

“When I got off the wall the steering was bent and I made contact with Russell Ingall.

“I’m obviously disappointed for the team who will be here for a while tonight fixing the car. We wanted to do well here in front of the Kiwi fans but today was not a great result for SBR.

“We have a good bank of tyres for tomorrow so we just need to qualify well and it will be all on.”

The V8 Supercars will be on track tomorrow for Race 2 of the Hamilton ITM 400 at 2:30pm after Qualifying at 11:00am.

ITM 400 HAMILTON, Race 1 (59 laps) – RESULTS

1 1 TeamVodafone/Jamie Whincup
2 2 Toll Holden Racing Team/Garth Tander
3 18 Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney
4 888 TeamVodafone/Craig Lowndes
5 34 Fujitsu Racing/GRM/Michael Caruso
6 17 Jim Beam Racing/Steven Johnson
7 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon/Mark Winterbottom
8 15 Jack Daniel's Racing /Rick Kelly
9 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team/Paul Dumbrell
10 33 Fujitsu Racing /GRM/Lee Holdsworth
11 8 Team BOC/Jason Richards
17 4 IRWIN Racing/Alex Davison
DNF 47 Wilson Security Racing/Tim Slade
DNF 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen

ITM 400 HAMILTON, Qualifying – RESULTS

1 2 Toll Holden Racing Team/Garth Tander 1:23.0653R
2 18 Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney 1:23.2135
3 3 Centaur Racing/Tony D'Alberto 1:23.3940
4 1 TeamVodafone/Jamie Whincup 1:23.3946
5 34 Fujitsu Racing/GRM/Michael Caruso 1:23.4214
6 24 Bundaberg Red Racing Team/Fabian Coulthard 1:23.4416
7 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon/Mark Winterbottom 1:23.4899
8 15 Jack Daniel's Racing/Rick Kelly 1:23.5070
9 17 Jim Beam Racing/Steven Johnson 1:23.5259
10 888 TeamVodafone/Craig Lowndes 1:23.5443
21 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen 1:24.0839
25 47 Wilson Security Racing Tim Slade 1:24.2932
26 4 IRWIN Racing/Alex Davison 1:24.3191