Hi to all you Supercars Fans Around the world!
On the weekend of the 19th to the 21st of October 2018 Was the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 in Queensland, this race track is a Concrete Canyon.
Rick Kelly was fastest in Practice 1, James Golding caused a red flag in the final 30 seconds of practice number 1, meaning that if a car or driver brings out the Red Flag they are not allowed to continue in that session.
Aaren Russell was fastest in practice 2 for the co drivers, while Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest in practice 3 for main drivers and Will Davison caused a red flag, when the front left suspension broke and as a result of that Will Davison went into the wall in-between turns 2 and 3.
In Qualifying Shane Van Gisbergen was fastest but in the Top Ten shootout, both Shane Van Gisbergen and James Courtney had their laps deleted by race control for putting all 4 wheels over the curbs at the Virgin Australia back chicane.
In race 26 Scott Mclaughlin and Alex Premat started on pole position alongside them was Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell. Most of the co-drivers started the race accept for 1 main driver which was Craig Lowndes.
The minimum laps the co-drivers had to do were 34 before handing back to the main drivers and the maximum was 68 laps.
At the start of the race Alex Premat was leading the opening lap until Paul Dumbrell tried to make a move on car 17 which didn’t end well for Alex Premat. Because he ended up dropping from 1st to 11th. Which wasn’t ideal for Scott Mclaughlin’s championship hopes. But my first thought was I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex Premat had any damage as a result of the whack with the wall in-between turns 11 and 12.
The incident between Alex Premat and Paul happened on lap 2 which race control said no further action meaning there was no penalty to be issued.
Brad Jones Racing got pinged for losing a wheel, and that wasn’t all they also got fined $5,000 and also got docked 30 team’s championship points, which would not make Brad Jones a very happy team boss.
After Will Brown hit the wall heavily and broke the rear wing the Vodafone safety car was deployed, I thought there was no way that Steve Owen could get passed Will in that spot, but he tried it anyway.
While the Safety car was out, everybody took the opportunity to pit, that was when pit lane got busy.
Both Paul Dumbrell and Earl Bamber copped a drive thru penalty for unsafe pit releases after making contact with James Moffatt.
In the middle of the race most of the co drivers had done their 34 laps. Which was a good the only 1 that hadn’t done the 34 laps was Steven Richards because he didn’t start the race, James Courtney was battling with Craig Lowndes for 2nd spot. He finally got by after James Courtney made a mistake and ran wide.
What happened between the middle and the end? Will Davison tried to get passed Scott Pye while James Courtney was trying to hold back the people’s champion in Craig Lowndes from getting on the podium but wasn’t able to hold him back towards the end of the Race Shane Van Gisbergen had to fighting back because he was down in 15th spot.
Towards the end of the Chaz Mostert was battling Craig Lowndes for the race win, but unfortunately Craig didn’t have enough laps or time to catch up to him. I thought Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards were going to win.
Results for race 26
1st Chaz Mostert & James Moffatt – Supercheap Auto Racing.
2nd Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards – Autobarn Lowndes Racing.
3rd James Courtney & Jack Perkins – Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing.
The only 2 drivers to get a Do Not Finish – DNF or NC – Not Complete were Will Brown and Steve Owen.
In total 24 cars finished race 26.
In Qualifying for race 27, Shane Van Gisbergen was the fastest driver meaning he got the last go in the top 10 Shootout.
The drivers who didn’t set a time were, Jamie Whincup, Scott Mclaughlin and Tim Slade who started 8th 9th and 10th respectively. This means that 3 drivers that started 8th 9th and 10th didn’t complete their laps.
In race 27
David Reynolds and Luke Youlden on pole, alongside them was Chaz Mostert and James Moffatt. What started out as a 102 lap, 300 kilometres race, ended short due to the weather.
Luke Youlden got the jump on and led though the turns 1, 2 and 3. While the start of the race was dry and for the opening, basically all of the co-drivers started accept for Erebus motorsport car 99 which was started with Anton De Pasquale.
After the race got underway the dark clouds started rolling in, I thought oh my god here comes the rain, when the conditions started to get worse everybody was out on the track with dry tyres on.
I thought if the drivers who started the race were out with dry tyres, they could end up hitting the wall if they are not careful.
Steven Richards turned Scott Pye around at turn 4 which normally would mean that Steven Richards would have copped a drive thru penalty.
When Scott Pye and Steven Richards come together Paul Dumbrell was right behind them. And I thought oh no it looked like Paul Dumbrell was going to be involved in the Incident, but thankfully he missed it early on in that. I wondered why Luke Youden had moved over and it was because he knew there was a long way to go which is a good call because if the other doesn’t see you and turns in you can do a pit penalty, which wouldn’t be helpful, especially for the drivers who are in Championship contention,
Which is Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen, so if any of those drivers made a mistake they have either give the spot back or cop a pit lane penalty.
There were 5 cars in the wall at turn 12 when Neil Crompton first started counting them. Which allowed Paul Dumbrell to push on. The rain arrived and it came bucketing down with thunder and lighting at that point I was, oh no this is dangerous for not only drivers, but the fans and camera crew.
The drivers only did 29 laps under green flag racing, before the Vodafone Safety was deployed due to bad weather.
Both the Brad Jones Racing cars ended up in the wall at turn 12 they were driven by Macauley Jones and Ash Walsh. What does this mean? It mean that when the team got back to their Albury workshop they had to start repairing their damaged cars which Brad Jones wouldn’t have been happy with doing.
Also, David Russell ended hitting the wall at the same place due to having no grip.
Jamie Whincup was on standby waiting for Paul Dumbrell to come into the pit lane so that he could get in for his stint. But interesting to note because Paul Dumbrell was stuck in tyres at turn 12 he couldn’t drive car 1 back to the pitlane, so, car 1 went back on the back of a tow truck.
While the Red Flag was out, which meant the race was suspended until the track dried out. I don’t think they wanted another incident like Symonds Plains Tasmania.
But the rains didn’t let up.
The funniest part of race 27 was when Mark Skaife asked Neil Crompton “call him crazy” which was funny, but other people may not have seen it that way.
Even Barry Ryan from Erebus Motorsport said that the race should been stopped because the weather was so bad. And that would make it a non-Event. When tried to restart the race, I thought they were mad in doing so because that would’ve meant the teams would have wrecked race cars and knowing that the next race meeting is a fly away event the teams didn’t want to risk it. Which I thought was a good idea.
When the race was suspended again for the 2nd time Tim Schenken made a call to stop the completely.
Mark Skaife said it was the right call.
There were no results for race 27, their are still 14 points between Scott Mclaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen heading to the ITM Auckland Supersprint on the 2nd to the 4th of November 2018.
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