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TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR SBR IN TOWNSVILLE

Topics: Sucrogen Townsville 400

TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR SBR IN TOWNSVILLE

Stone Brothers Racing
July 11, 2010

It was a frustrating day for SBR today (Sunday) with all three cars struggling to make gains in the 200km race on the Townsville street circuit. After a shocking qualifying session that saw all three cars start from outside the top 15 Shane van Gisbergen wrestled the SP Tools Falcon to another top ten finish while Tim Slade managed his second 12th place for the weekend.

It was a great comeback for Alex Davison after having to serve a drive though penalty for a wheel nut rolling over into the fast lane during his first pit stop. The IRWIN Racing driver fought back and took advantage of a safety car period climbing his way back to 14th at the finish.

This morning’s qualifying was run in a much cooler conditions with rain looming on the 20 minute session. After a tough run in yesterday’s Top Ten Shootout van Gisbergen was looking to improve on his ninth place start but it wasn’t to be with all three drivers struggling to show outright pace over one qualifying lap.

Today’s race result has seen van Gisbergen fall back to 4th in the Championship points while Tim Slade has maintained his position of 15th overall. Alex Davison currently sits in 21st heading into the eight week midseason break.

The Stone Brothers Racing team will now head back to the Gold Coast to begin preparations for the upcoming Phillip Island 500km enduro in September.

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

“We didn’t qualify well this morning the car wasn’t the best, we just couldn’t really keep up with the rubber on the track, other cars gripped up and we didn’t. I set the same lap time yesterday and it was good enough for 6th but today it put us 17th.

“In the race I had good speed by myself but then I would catch cars and the brakes would overheat and the tyres and I’d drop back so it was very hard to pass today. We did the best with what we had, the boys did some great pit stops and we really just did the best we could.

“I'm pretty confident for the enduros that Johnny Mac and I will do a good job. It’s great for the boys now to have a couple of weeks off and we will try and have a good build up to Phillip Island and smash them then.”

Tim Slade – Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

“Starting from 25th it was always going to be difficult in the race. Obviously we didn’t have the pace over a single lap in qualifying, of outright pace but I knew from yesterday that the car would still be decent for a race run.

“The car looks after its tyres, not the best out there but better than most but I don’t really think we had the same pace as the top half dozen cars all weekend but if we had of started higher up in the race I think there was the potential to finish in a much better position.

“It was a crazy race I was struggling with brake balance right at the start and locked the front and almost took out Rick Kelly at turn 1 but managed to go off into the escape road, spin turn and get back only losing one position but lost probably five or six seconds.

“I then stalled it in the pit stop, so I didn’t really make it easy for myself, it wasn’t the best race on my behalf but the car was struggling a little bit.

“At the restart I don’t know why but my tyres just seemed to take a couple of laps to come on. I just had really bad push those first couple of laps and thought I hope they actually do come up otherwise I am going to get swamped here. I got passed by three or four cars but managed to get them back which was lucky.

“All in all considering we didn’t have the ultimate pace this weekend we have come away with two 12th places and we are now top 15 in the Championship so it’s good to be in that position heading into the mid-season break. Jack [Perkins] and I will be working hard on driver changes and spending time at the workshop with the boys for the endurances races so I'm really looking forward to those.”

Alex Davison – Driver, IRWIN Racing Car #4

“It was a bit of a comeback today we had very very good pace in the middle stint but we are just struggling to have good pace in all three stints. In the first stint the car wasn’t particularly good at all and then we lowered the roll centre at the first pit stop and it made it really good.

“We weren’t even on our best set of tyres in the middle stint but the car was great and then we made the same change again for the last stint and probably got a bit greedy because it didn’t have the same effect.

“We were lucky to get that safety car but at the restart McConville just ran straight up the back of me even before the straight coming round for the restart so I don’t know what is going on with that bloke.

“I would rather being going into the break with a good result but I always look forward to the enduros, we were strong there last year but got let down with a wheel coming loose at Phillip Island and at Bathurst we had damage on the car so hopefully we can redeem ourselves this year because we showed great speed there last year.”

Sucrogen Townsville 400 Race 16 (72 laps) – RESULTS

1 5 FPR - Orrcon Steel/Mark Winterbottom
2 18 Jim Beam Racing James Courtney
3 2 Toll Holden Racing Team Garth Tander
4 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team Paul Dumbrell
5 6 FPR - Dunlop Super Dealer/Steve Richards
6 22 Toll Holden Racing Team/Will Davison
7 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen
8 8 Team BOC/Jason Richards
9 19 Dick Johnson Racing/ Jonathon Webb Falcon
10 11 Rock Racing/Jason Bargwanna
12 Wilson Security/Racing Tim Slade
14 4 IRWIN Racing/Alex Davison

Sucrogen Townsville 400 Qualifying – RESULTS

1 1 TeamVodafone/Jamie Whincup 01:12:7275
2 888 TeamVodafone/Craig Lowndes 01:13:0095
3 2 Toll Holden Racing Team/Garth Tander 01:13:1002
4 18 Jim Beam Racing/James Courtney 01:13:1261
5 14 Trading Post Racing/Jason Bright 01:13:1607
6 5 FPR - Orrcon Steel/ Mark Winterbottom 01:13:2774
7 22 Toll Holden Racing Team/Will Davison 01:13:2878
8 Team BOC/Jason Richards 01:13:3214
9 17 Jim Beam Racing/Steven Johnson 01:13:3435
10 6 FPR - Dunlop Super Dealer / Steve Richards 01:13:3440
17 9 SP Tools Racing/Shane van Gisbergen 01:13:4768
24 4 IRWIN Racing/Alex Davison 01:13:7422
25 47 Wilson Security Racing/Tim Slade 01:13:8073