Disappointing Start For HSV Dealer Team At Hidden Valley
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Jul 04, 2008
rickkelly.com
The HSV Dealer Team made a disappointing start to Round 6 of the V8 Supercar Championship at Hidden Valley in Darwin with drivers Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell finishing in 21st and 24th positions after the three part practice session.
Both Kelly and Dumbrell spent the session chasing the perfect setup. Kelly, although disappointed with his final result, was confident that what he learnt from the session and his new car would flow through to qualifying session.
Dumbrell also had his share of problems, experiencing a flat spot on his first set of tyres. The team had to bolt on the green set of tyres earlier in the session than planned and also faced a few slight grip issues.
Both drivers will sit down tonight and work through the available data to make any necessary changes, in order to move forward tomorrow.
Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom continued his good form finishing the practice session in first position. Toll Holden Racing Team’s Mark Skaife finished in second, followed by fellow Holden driver Lee Holdsworth.
The temperature soared at 31 degrees with track temperature in excess of 44 degrees.
Qualifying and race one head up tomorrow’s V8 action.
#15 Rick Kelly (21st fastest, 1:10.4323)
“We had quite a constructive practice session today, obviously the first meeting in a new car and everything was going pretty reasonable. We experienced some low track grip at the start of the session but we worked away to fix that and by the time it came to bolting on our ‘green’ tyres we had actually worked forward a little bit. We were quite happy at that point, but as soon as we bolted on our new tyres we just didn’t get a gain from it. ”
“We need to look into whether we went slightly the wrong way with setup or if there was anything in the tyre set and resurrect it. It’s a disappointing result from today, being that far back but we are not too worried at this stage. We know if it is a setup issue which way to go to improve on it. ”
“We adapt to that sort of thing quickly (a new car) and it feels like we have been in it all year. There are no major changes in the new car and everything feels quite normal in it and it is a good feat to jump in a new car and have that feel. ”
#16 Paul Dumbrell (24th fastest, 1:10.6668)
“It was really disappointing, we had a few issues and flat spotted our first set of tyres which kind of put us on the back foot and because of that we had to run the ‘green’ set of tyres a little bit earlier than anticipated. We didn’t get the overall grip from the tyre unfortunately and we have a lot of work to do tonight. ”
“We have all the information there, it is now for us to decipher and make sure we learn what we have done wrong. Obviously we have tuned it in the wrong direction but there will be reason for that and we will get on top of it. ”
“It wasn’t actually as warm as I thought it was going to be today but a couple of 42 lap races tomorrow will probably test a few people. ”
