The Crittenden Automotive Library

SBR ‘Tickled Pink’ with Practice

Topics: Winton Motor Raceway

SBR ‘Tickled Pink’ with Practice

Stone Brothers Racing
May 1, 2009

V8 Supercar teams received the special allocation of the new Dunlop SP Sport Maxx ‘Sprint’ tyre today for use in the Practice Sessions on the Winton Motor Raceway circuit.

The soft compound tyre featured a pink tyre wall as a one-off today as it will be the only allocation teams can use in practice for this year.

It was the first chance for SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen and IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison to get a feel for the new tyres with the only testing of the sprint option taking place late last year by a small selection of the series drivers.

As part of a new rule teams will now be required to run a set of soft tyres in the races at each V8 Supercar event. The decision on whether or not to use the sprint set all in one race or spread them throughout the weekend promises to see teams strategy’s change based on tomorrows qualifying results.

Wes McDougall – Engineer Car #4

“The sprint tyre has been designed to be significantly faster and approximately two seconds quicker per lap but will deteriorate faster than the control tyre. Based on what testing has been done so far we are assuming the tyres will be good for around 29 laps with five of those laps posting the quickest times.”

As expected the new tyres made for some interesting results and quick lap times in session B and C of today’s Practice.

The SP Tools Racing Falcon was quick out of the box in Part A of Practice setting the second fastest time in the 50 minute session on a soft set of tyres. Van Gisbergen re-entered the track for Part B of Practice and ran into trouble when Bargwanna made contact with him upon entering Pit Lane. On re-entry to the circuit Shane managed to post consistent times on his set of sprint tyres before they started to expire.

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver SP Tools Racing Car #9

“The soft tyre was awesome, the car had so much grip, not only in traction and braking but in corner speed, it was a real pleasure to drive. They deteriorated pretty fast so we just settled into a rhythm to see how long they would take to drop away.

“Bargwanna didn’t see me, we made contact at the wheels and it bent my steering a bit. It’s not the sort of thing you want to happen in Practice but I was pretty harmless.”

IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison had mixed feelings about today’s sessions as he tried to get his head around the Winton circuit in a V8 Supercar.

Alex Davison – Driver IRWIN Racing Car #4

“It’s fair to say I am a little disappointed with my result, I have raced here quite a bit in other categories, never really in a V8 Supercar so I spent time today trying to get my head around what these cars can do on this circuit.

“We have some work to do to get the car where we want it to be so tonight I will work with Wes and the boys to get it setup right for qualifying tomorrow.”

For Saturday’s 33 Lap Race the tyre wall on the soft sprint tyres will be painted yellow so visually teams and spectators can differentiate what cars are running the control and sprint tyres on the track. Qualifying will commence at 11:00am tomorrow before Race 1 at 3:30pm.

Winton Motor Raceway – Practice Results

POS	CAR#	DRIVER	TEAM	FASTEST TIME
1	2	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	1:22.1481
2	1	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone	1:22.1676
3	33	Lee Holdsworth	Garry Rogers Motorsport	1:22.2139
4	9	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools Racing	1:22.3921
5	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Performance Racing	1:22.5760
6	22	Wil Davison	Holden Racing Team	1:22.5917
7	10	Paul Dumbrell	Team Autobarn	1:22.6602
8	18	James Courtney	Jim Beam Racing	1:22.6952
9	34	Micheal Caruso	Garry Rogers Motorsport	1:22.7367
10	888	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone	1:22.7440
19	4	Alex Davison	IRWIN Racing	1:23.1345