Hi Guys and Girls on the 27th February to the 2nd of March 2014 was the Clipsal 500.
In race 1 Red Bull Racing Australia’s Jamie Whincup started on pole position alongside him was his teammate Craig Lowndes. Craig got the jump into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 39 laps. Also on lap 1 Chaz Mostert went into the wall at turn 5, due to an oil leaking from the rear of car 6.
Tim Slade was trying to pass the Rick Kelly, towards the end of the opening lap, Shane Van Gisbergen was ahead of Mark Winterbottom in 3rd spot. On lap 2 the race leaders had to be careful due to the oil that Chaz had left behind in-between turns 4 and 5. Chaz’s car ended up in the pit garage to fix the oil leak issues, and the sister car of David Reynolds also pitted due to damage on the front right hand corner, from hitting the wall at turn 11. Scott Pye ran wide down at turn 9 due to a locked brake on the front left corner. On lap 3 Lee Holdsworth had David Wall and James Moffat. Jason Bright ended up being passed by Russell Ingall. Garth Tander passed the DJR car, for position 12.
On lap 4 Jamie was the first car to make his pitstop for tyres and fuel, so that his teammate didn’t have to double stack, the 2nd car was Garry Rogers motorsport Volvo Polestar racing, car 34 driven by Robert Dahlgren. On lap 5 David was in the garage getting checked over by the doctor after a hard hit at turn 11. On lap 6 James Courtney was chasing Mark Winterbottom, through turns 1, 2 and 3. Todd Kelly was asked to enter pit lane in car 7 on lap 7, cars 7, 21 and 16 pitted on the same lap. James Courtney, also Scott McLaughlin pitted together. On the pit exit Todd got passed Scott as he was re-joining the racetrack.
The Pepsi Max crew FPR team did Mark’s pitstop on lap 9, James Moffat had to serve a pit lane penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit which is 40 klms/hour. Car 97 peeled off on lap 13 for his compulsory pitstop. Craig pitted on lap 14, for 2 tyres and fuel. Craig said ‘what the heck happened there’, and his race engineer Jeromy Moore said sorry to Craig about the pitstop issue with the right rear wheel.
In the middle of the race Shane was following Craig for the effectively 2nd and 3rd positions. Towards the end of the race cars 22, 47 and 2 are all were battling for 10th 11th and 12th spots. Tim nearly hit the wall on the left hand side.
Nick Percat made contact with Michael Caruso. In the end Nick ended up in the garage. Craig caught the grass on approach to turn 14. Rick was under pressure from Scott, in the end Jamie ended the first race of the season on the top spot of the podium and he claimed his 8th win at Clipsal and race win number 74.
Results for race 1
1st Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen – Team VIP – Tekno Autosports.
In race 2 Craig Lowndes started on pole position alongside him was Scott McLaughlin, Craig got the jump into the turns 1, 2 and 3 chicane. On lap 1 Lee Holdsworth tried to get passed the Pepsi Max Crew Ford. When James passed the FPR car, he started to chase Lee Holdsworth. Meanwhile Nick Percat and Garth Tander made contact at turn 9. On lap 2 Craig got a kerb strike Neil Crompton said that Craig burning a kerb hop after lap 1 was not good. Jamie managed to get passed Scott McLaughlin, for 2nd spot. On lap 3 Jason Bright tried to a make a move down the main straight. Mark Beretta was right at the last corner, turn 14. On lap 4 Jason Bright tried get down the inside of the Volvo at turn 9. On lap 5 Scott was complaining about the over steer to his race engineer Richard Hallway. The first car to make to a pit was Robert Dahlgren. Robert stalled on exit of the pits Matt White was talking to Robert and he said to him ‘I bet it is not 30 degrees where you come from on the east coast of Sweden’, he replied ‘yeah minus’. In the middle of the race James Courtney nearly lost the passenger’s side door on approach to turn 4. Towards the end of the race, Scott and Jamie were battling for 2nd and 3rd.
Results for race 2
1st Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia.
2nd Scott Maclaughlin – Volvo Polstar racing GRM.
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia.
In race 3, Shane Van Gisbergen started on pole position alongside him was the 5 times V8 Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup. Jamie got the jump and led the field into turns 1, 2 and 3 for the first of 78 laps. Rick Kelly made contact with the tyre bundle at turn 1. As a result of the guard rubbing on the front left tyre, there was smoke pouring out of the left hand side of his car. On lap 2 David Reynolds pitted early for fuel. On lap 3 Todd Kelly had no throttle meaning the car running only on idol due to a broken throttle cable.
Shane tried to pass Jamie at turn 9, but wasn’t able to make the move stick. On lap 4 the first 3 cars to pit were Craig Lowndes, Chaz Mostert and Fabain Coulthard. On lap 5 Car 7 was limping back to the pits. On lap 6 James Courtney made his first compulsory pitstop. On lap 7 Nick Percat came in for tyres and fuel. On lap 8 the Volvo 560 got through on Tim Slade, at turn 9. Micheal Caruso got a black flag for speeding in the pitlane. Will Davison went into the wall at turn 8 on lap 10, as a result a safety car was deployed, that meant that cars 1 and 2 could make their compulsory pitstops.
At the restart on lap 14, Jason Bright ended up rolling his car at turn 1, the cars that were involved were cars 8 Jason Bright, 6 Chaz Mostert, 16 Scott Pye, and 4 Lee Holdsworth. The 2nd safety car was deployed due to this crash.
On the 2nd restart on lap 19, cars 15 and 97 got drive thru penalties for not maintaining the speed after the restart, Mark went into the tyres between turns 6 and 7. When Rick took his pit lane penalty that left cars 1 and 888, to start the next lap in positions 1 and 2.
In the middle of the race Craig came in for his last pit stop and
towards the end of the race Jamie got a pit lane drive thru penalty for the car controller touching his car as Jamie was trying to save his day he made contact at turn 9 with Michael Caruso. In the end James Courtney won race 3.
Results Race 3
1st James Courtney – Holden Racing Team
2nd Craig Lowndes – Red Bull Racing Australia
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen –Techno Auto Sports
The next event is the Tasmania 400 on the 28th to the 30th of March 2014 races 4, 5 and 6. Craig Lowndes currently leads the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship series points standing by 282 points over 2nd placed Fabain Coulthard.
Trivia
Tekno Auto Sports, VIP Petfoods, Lucas Dumbrell motorsport and HHA Racing have only got one car in this year’s Championship. Mark Larkham has a new inferred camera which he uses for checking out the temperatures on both the front and rear brake routes and pads.
The last time that Tim drove for Supercheap Auto Racing before this year was 2009.