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SBR Finish inside the Top Ten at Hamilton for Race 1

Topics: Hamilton 400

SBR Finish inside the Top Ten at Hamilton for Race 1

Stone Brothers Racing
April 18, 2009

After a successful start to the race weekend Shane van Gisbergen and Alex Davison took to the track on the streets of Hamilton for the morning qualifying sessions.

The controversial tyre bundles that were removed from the tracks chicane at the end of yesterdays Practice sessions were back in place for today’s Qualifying after a decision made by race officials. The series drivers were notified of the change in a drivers briefing held last night.

Qualifying

Leg 1 of Qualifying kept the IRWIN Racing Team on the edge of their seats as Alex Davison managed to place himself inside the top twenty on his final lap after the chequered flag was raised. Alex’s quickest time of the session good enough to slot him into 13th position and move him into the next Leg.

SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen was pushed back as far as tenth position during the 20 minute session managing to be consistently quick throughout his time on track.

The SBR Team were not so lucky in the second Leg of Qualifying as Alex lingered in 15th position for a majority of the session while Shane van Gisbergen missed making it into the Top Ten Shootout by 0:00.0942 seconds.

Race 1 – 59 Laps

Starting from 11th position on the grid the SP Tools Racing Falcon dropped back to 12th at Turn 1 amid heavy traffic while the IRWIN Racing Falcon lost three positions and dropped down to 19th.

On Lap 4 Shane reported to his engineer, Paul Forgie that he had bent the steering after a brush with the concrete wall at Turn 7. Trying to calm a frustrated driver down Paul managed to settle Shane back into a competitive race rhythm.

Van Gisbergen managed to maintain good speed shortly after before a Safety Car period was deployed when Kiwi local Greg Murphy came together with rookie Tim Slade at Turn 7.

The drama continued for the SP Tools Racing Falcon as shortly after the restart on lap 10 van Gisbergen was involved in an incident, when the #9 FG Falcon was left stuck behind Dumbrell after he spun out in front of him when Shane made contact trying to pass. Luckily the SP Tools Racing Falcon managed to escape the incident unscathed but lost time and positions dropping Shane back from 11th to 25th.

Paul Forgie – Engineer Car #9 (In-car Radio – Lap 10)

“Stay cool. There will be other Safety Car periods. We may change our fuel strategy to get you on the back of that pack again so we can make some gains. We will come back from this.”

Davison looking to improve from a hectic race start maintained good pace setting his quickest time on lap 17. On Lap 23 Alex entered Pit Lane to make his compulsory stop, the SBR pit crew opting to change the rear tyres only.

In a great fight back through the field Shane stopped for four new tyres and fuel. Making good progress, a second Safety Car period was deployed due to one of the tyre bundles making its way onto the centre of the track after Marcus Marshall made impact with the bundle when racing through the chicane.

The Safety car bunched the field back up for a 5 lap sprint to the finish, with Shane and Alex racing directly behind one another on the restart at Turn 1. The final laps saw some of the top ten contender’s drop back allowing for Shane and Alex to take advantage of track position finishing the 200km race 9th and 10th respectively.

Alex Davison – Driver IRWIN Tools Racing Car #4

“It was a pretty long race and we were battling a bit but its good to get some points together and a solid result. We still have some work to do so hopefully we can have an even better result tomorrow.”

Wes McDougall – Engineer Car #4

“Today was a step in the right direction for us. We still have a lot to do and a lot to gain but as long as we are moving forward its all positive.

“We were a bit behind the eight ball from the word go when it came to tyres. We had to do an extra practice session yesterday and used a new set there so that’s why we only used two new tyres today in the pit stop to help with tomorrow’s race. We are trying to spread the emphasis across the two races rather than just today’s race so we are in good shape or tomorrow.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver SP Tools Racing Car #9

“I made a mistake and bent the steering against the wall. Then we had an incident with Dumbrell which dropped us well back so we made it hard for ourselves early today.

“I thought there was room to pass Dumbrell, he left a big gap and I was in there and then he came down on me. It was too late and I was already committed so I could not back out and he ended up spinning in front of me.”

The V8 Supercars will take to the track tomorrow at 1:00pm for the new 20 minute qualifying session before the cars grid up for Race 2 at 3:05pm.

NOTE: After the race Shane van Gisbergen and SBR were given a 23 second penalty for the incident with Dumbrell. As a result the Race 1 finishing positions were adjusted with Shane moved back to 17th position, Alex moving up into 9th.