Mark McNally has turned the corner in his V8 Supercar career after performing strongly despite adversity at Victoria’s Winton Raceway in Round 3 of the 2007 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.
After qualifying fifth, just 2/10ths of a second from pole position Mark started the weekend in fine form as he drove to fourth place in the first race on Saturday.
It was after the race that things went wrong when Mark’s team mistakenly failed to present the car for weighing which resulted in Mark being stripped of the result and sent to the rear of field for Sundays Race 2.
Although disappointed, Mark’s steely attitude allowed him to re-focus on what he had to do and press on in a professional manner in Race 2 which was run in wet conditions.
“I had an awesome opening and passed 13 cars in the first lap, ” Mark said.
“We should have been on a huge charge after that; the car was really good in the wet.
“It sounds really stupid but I had a problem with the demister, I had never used one before and didn’t need it in the wet on Friday.
“I couldn’t find the switch and even with communication from the crew it didn’t help me find it.
“I just couldn’t see, I was actually driving by looking out the side window and just trying to judge a bit out the front.
“I made up a few places but the traffic didn’t allow me to show the true pace of the car in the wet. ”
Mark eventually finished 21st after starting from grid 34.
The final race saw Mark starting from grid 26 on a dry track and storm through the traffic to finish 11th.
“I was pretty happy with it, the car was not perfect as we still had a brake issue, when the pads are new they are awesome but after a while they lose their feel through the pedal.
“It upsets the braking zones, but to come from 26th to 11th was awesome.
“There were no easy positions out there today; I had to work hard for every one of them.
“We really need to get on top of the brake issue because even though I had traffic the whole race we were still about a second off the speed of the front guys.
“I am really happy to come away from the weekend knowing that I can run with those guys and I think in the next few days it will really sink in.
“Getting penalised on Saturday does not change what I did on the track.
“I have always known that I have it in me to run with the front guys but it is good that the team and others have now seen it too. ”
“I really want to thank the team for everything, there are no hard feelings about the penalty, it was a genuine mistake and we will grow as a team from this weekend through the positives and negatives, ’ Mark said.
Channel 7 will telecast the Winton round this coming Saturday at 1.30pm AEST.
Mark’s next race will be at Queensland Raceway on 20-22 July.
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