GREAT RECOVERY BY SBR AT BARBAGALLO

Topics:  Trading Post Perth Challenge

Stone Brothers Racing
May 1, 2011

Stone Brother Racing (SBR) again proved they are a Championship contender this year, with a brilliant fight-back performance in today’s two races at the Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia.

This morning’s 20-minute qualifying session, where each driver’s two fastest laps decided their starting positions for both races two and three, was not an overly happy venture for SBR - with only Alex Davison able to crack the top ten.

Shane van Gisbergen and Tim Slade started the first race mid-field in 20th and 17th places respectively, but like Davison, made the most of their softer compound ‘Sprint’ tyres to gain considerable ground throughout the first race to both finish inside the top ten.

Slade’s run in the opening race today was a stellar effort, coming from 17th on the grid to finish the 50-lap race in fifth place. Davison in the #4 IRWIN Racing Falcon held on for fifth place while van Gisbergen in the #9 SP Tools Racing Falcon also had a strong run, coming home in tenth place.

But there was little reward for SBR’s solid performance in today’s earlier race, with van Gisbergen and Slade once again having to line up mid-field for race two, and Davison in seventh thanks to the unpopular qualifying system.

In almost a repeat of race one, van Gisbergen and Slade’s Falcons relished on the soft tyre, allowing them to carve their way through the field for another top ten finish (7th & 9th respectively), but for reasons yet to be determined, Davison’s #4 IRWIN Racing Falcon found the going tough with him finishing the second race in 11th.

Today’s promising results elevate SBR back into second place on the Team’s Championship points table, van Gisbergen cements his fourth place (216 off leader Jamie Whincup) in the driver’s Championship and Davison maintains his eighth position. Slade’s solid outing this weekend sees him move up into 16th place.

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

“I tell you what, I’ve had enough of passing cars! – seriously though, our car was brilliant on tyres today and sadly poor qualifying results really hurt us. Our outright speed wasn’t great early on but after ten or 15 laps we could have taken on anyone. It was good to back up the win at Hamilton with some more positive results that have kept us in the Championship hunt.”

Tim Slade – Driver, Lucky 7 Racing Car #47

“Today was a really good day after struggling in qualifying. Like Shane, our car really looked after its tyres which was the key this weekend. I just did the best I could to get the most out of them until the later stages of the race and tried to keep out of trouble. Our stops were really good too, so in all a really positive weekend. Today’s performance has given us a good base to move forward on.”

Alex Davison – Driver, IRWIN Racing Car #4

“It was a good solid result this morning in race one, and the car was really, really good on fresh tyres. After the frustration of yesterday’s race the team did an outstanding job to turn things around, but this afternoon it just started to chew through the tyres too early – no matter how much I tried to nurse them. We had good outright speed but need to find some more to be competitive over race distance.”