Wet weather conditions in race two of Winton’s Carrera Cup round two has played havoc with the Team VIP Petfoods’ trio of Craig Baird, Tony Quinn and Klark Quinn today.
While the first race of the day began in dry conditions and saw Baird pull away to create a 100m lead in the early stages, a race incident involving none-other than Baird’s teammate Tony Quinn and driver Dean Fiore brought on a safety car period.
Under the yellow, the scene for race havoc was set with the field, all on slick tyres, not only compressed but also experiencing heavy rain which created a slippery race surface for the Porsche racers.
On the restart, current race leader Baird was the first to fall victim to the conditions, running wide on the first corner only to rejoin to become involved in a race incident with close rival Alex Davison.
The incident saw Baird put further back in the pack, from which he batttled through to ultimately cross the line in 10th.
Meanwhile Klark, with his father Tony now out of the race, was in a battle of his own and despite beginning the final lap in 8th position also ran afoul of the wet conditions, becoming out-of-sorts during the closing kilometres to finish in 12th.
The final race grid saw the Team VIP Petfoods trio faced with the daunting task of progressing through heavy traffic on a circuit where passing can be difficult, with the senior Quinn needing to contend with the added inconvenience of wheel alignment issues unable to be repaired during the break between races.
After eight laps all run under dry conditions, the chequered flag came down on Baird and Klark in 6th and 12th respectively after doing their best to come through from the middle of the pack, and with Tony perservering to defend his starting race position.
With all three of the round’s races now run and won, it soon became clear that the weather conditions had sadly put paid to Team VIP Petfoods’ hopes of extending Baird’s current series lead, instead seeing him drop to second in the series standings 54 points behind regular dicing partner and overall round two winner Alex Davison.
“This weekend has just been ups and downs, with yesterday being so great for me and then today to deal with the weather and a field of drivers on slicks skidding all over the place” said Baird.
“The first race of the day started well and I was pulling away with a big lead, but then we had the safety car and the rain, and it all just went a bit pear-shaped.
“It is never good to have incidents like all of us have experienced today, but we will just keep on going and I will be looking to regain my series lead in Darwin next month. “
This weekend’s Carrera Cup round came ahead of the team’s second Nürburgring 24 hour assault next month. The team received international recognition after finishing ninth outright in last year’s event and will be in serious contention for this year’s race with the use of their new car – the Porsche 991 GT3 RSR (Type 997), which will be officially unveiled at Queensland Raceway this Thursday the 24th from 12 noon to 1.30pm.
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