For Brad Jones, the day went downhill after only three laps of qualifying after the teams braking issues again intervened, sending the #14 Team BOC Falcon off the circuit after the high speed back straight. The Falcon went straight off at turn 5 hairpin, coming to rest in the tyre wall with heavy damage to the front end of the car. The damage was too severe to be repaired before the end of the first leg of qualifying so Brad started the first race from 28th.
Andrew also continued to suffer from the season long brake dramas during qualifying, finishing the session in 25th.
Brad’s qualifying accident flowed into race one when a hydraulic fitting on the power steering system began leaking only seconds after the start of the race. Frustratingly, the fitting didn’t leak during both the engine run-up in pit lane and two warmup laps prior to the race start. Brad then used the remaining laps of the race to prepare the Team BOC BF Falcon for tomorrow’s two races.
Andrew made a fantastic start to the 43 lap hit out, racing as high as 21st before coming together with Jason Bargwanna whilst trying to break into the top 20. The impact caused some steering damage to the #12 Team BOC Falcon and Andrew was forced to limp to the finish line in 25th, one spot higher than his qualifying effort.
The Placemakers V8 Supercars continues tomorrow with final ever two V8 Supercar races to be held at Pukekohe Raceway.
Session Details Session: Placemakers V8 Supercars – Race One
Winner: Garth Tander, Toll HSV Dealer Team
Fastest: Rick Kelly, Toll HSV Dealer Team 0:56.4068
Weather: Fine
Car 12: Andrew Jones
Position: 26
Laps completed: 37
Fastest: 0:57.4119
Andrew Jones
“In the race today my start wasn’t too bad and made up a couple of spots and I was quite happy with my actual jump from the line which was an improvement. We also seem to have made a few inroads into our braking issues. We came here with worked reasonably well in Perth and they just haven’t worked, but we have made a few changes since we got here and feel that we have made some small inroads into what we feel will be better. ”
“Unfortunately I got a little bit tangled up with Jason [Bargwanna] and lost a few positions because of it. I was passing Barg’s for 20th which, given our starting position, was ok. There were a few cars in front of me that I thought I was a bit quicker than but, it didn’t happen, so tomorrow we will use that same race pace and move forward. ”
Car 14: Brad Jones
Position: DNF
Laps completed: 20
Fastest: 0:57.6295
Brad Jones
“We obviously damaged a power steering fitting when I went off in qualifying after we had that brake problem. It didn’t leak after we had repaired the damage, it didn’t leak on the out laps and warm up lap, but as soon as the lights went out in the race – it leaked! So, once you’re a lap down, really you just have to make the best of a bad situation. We took the opportunity to road a few tyres for tomorrow and tried we tried a few different brake things to try and cure that issue. But now, we start off the back again tomorrow and we will see where we can get in the races tomorrow. ”
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