Day Of Frustration For WPS Racing In Adelaide

Day Of Frustration For WPS Racing In Adelaide

Mar 05, 2007

BAM Media

It was a day of frustration caused by others for the WPS Racing and WOW Racing Falcons in the second heat of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today – and it only took turns for the rot to set in!

Jason Bargwanna made a solid start off the line, but four turns into the 78-lap race everything turned bad when Jason Bright ran wide and then drove into the side of the WPS Falcon.

The contact badly damaged the right hand front suspension and steering which had to be replaced once the former Bathurst winner made it back to the pit garage. In the process Bargwanna went several laps down on the leaders.

Bargwanna rejoined the race only to have a gear lever come loose a few laps later. The drama continued when his car stopped out on the track with a fuel pick-up problem with 15 laps remaining in the race – causing a final safety car period.

Max Wilson battled hard all day in the WOW Falcon and was on the verge of opening his points account for the season after the final re-start when he was hit by Dean Canto at turn six.

The contact ripped the front bumper from the car and damaged the steering.

Wilson came into the pits for a quick check and the taping of the exposed air intake, but within a lap of rejoining the race it was obvious that his steering would not get him to the end.

Today’s race was won by Rick Kelly from yesterday’s winner Todd Kelly and James Courtney.

The next round of the championship is at Wanneroo Raceway in Perth, Western Australia on March 23-25.

Jason Bargwanna - #10 WPS Racing Falcon

“Today’s result was tremendously disappointing for the WPS team after a points scoring effort yesterday, ” said Bargwanna. “(Jason) Bright ran wide at turn four on the opening lap and then just drove back into traffic and into the side of me. I think cannoned into the side of Steve Owen, who then obviously had problems of his own. “We did manage to limp back to the pit garage and the boys did a great job to get me back out there, but the horse had well and truly bolted. “I think we definitely deserved a better result than this today, but now we can gather things up for Perth and battle on. ”

Max Wilson - #8 WOW Racing Falcon

“That was an amazingly frustrating day, ” said Wilson. “We chipped away all day and eventually got to within the points when (Dean) Canto drove into the side of me at turn six on the re-start. “Everyone in the WOW team worked hard and deserved to get some points on the board in today’s race. “It is frustrating to get that far into a race and have a solid result taken away from you by such a mistake. “Our car speed is improving, but we need to keep our heads down and work as hard as we can before heading to Perth in three weeks time. ”