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The City of Ipswich 400 revved into full gear today at Queensland Raceway. The V8 Supercars hit the track this morning for the three part qualifying session and Race 1 later in the day.
The HSV Dealer Team duo of Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell had a rocky start to the day when both Kelly and Dumbrell failed to make the final ten minute qualifying session.
In Race 1 Kelly soared to eighth position after starting from fourteenth on the grid. Kelly picked up a position on the start line after Dumbrell was relegated to twentieth position for missing the scales in qualifying.
Kelly was confident with his cars pace and was happy with the improvement the team had made after the qualifying session. Another great start and some more consistent driving should see Kelly move further forward through the field in Race 2 and 3.
Dumbrell made a rocketing start to pick up eight positions in the opening laps of the race. An early pit stop strategy allowed him to settle into the rhythm of the race. He crossed the line in eleventh place.
The Ford and Holden drivers took turns of sitting at the top of the time sheets in the qualifying session earlier today. Tander recorded the fastest time of the first session, Whincup was the fastest in the second.
Provisional pole sitter James Courtney took out pole position for Ford, Winterbottom qualified in second position and Russell Ingall was the first of the Holden’s in third.
That order remained unchanged at the completion of Race 1. Courtney crossed the line in first position, followed by Winterbottom and Ingall.
HSV Dealer Team Team Manager Erik Pender said he was proud of the entire team’s effort towards the result in today’s Race 1. After a disappointing qualifying session the team was able to re-group and put in a fantastic effort for the race. The team performed some slick pit stops on both car #15 and #16.
Race 2 and 3 wrap up the City of Ipswich 400 tomorrow.
#15 Rick Kelly (Qualifying: 15th, 1:11.1750; Race 1: 8th, 1:12.0679)
“I wanted to aim for sixth in that race. Initially we probably had the car to get there but we struggled in a couple of places for a bit of mid corner speed. Unfortunately that hurt us a little bit. We have an extremely good car through turns one and two which allows us to pass people into turn three. It was a pretty promising day for us, from fifteenth to eighth is a good start. If we can move back into the top five in tomorrow’s first race it will put us in a good position again.”
“Yeah PD got a great start, I was surprised after I got a couple of cars to see him in my rear vision mirror at turn three. That is really good and it shows that we can make up that many spots in the initial few laps, it is good team work and great driving.”
“The championship for us is sneaking away a little bit with first and second but it was good to finish in front of Jamie Whincup and also have Lowndes behind us and Steven Richards not too far in front.”
#16 Paul Dumbrell (Qualifying: 14th, 1:11.1716; Race 1: 11th, 1:12.0702)
“It was pretty good (the start) and it is something I have been working on over the last few rounds. I have been reasonably good the last couple of years but have dropped the ball lately and it has been good to see what I have been working on has paid dividends after a disappointing qualifying having missed the scales.”
“The car was quite reasonable so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
“It looks like the whole team has pushed things up a bar, it is really positive for both Rick and I that the team are working harmoniously together and we have to continue that tomorrow”
“It is probably not that easy up the front (to gain that many positions off the start) so some more consistent laps and stops and another good start should help us move forward again tomorrow.”
