“The bottom line is Sunday just wasn’t out day! †was how Larry Perkins summarized the days action from the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide after his rookie driver Shane Price and Jack Perkins suffered a frustrating set of mechanical concerns.
After an impressive outing during yesterday’s 78-lap race around the sun-soaked streets of Adelaide, both Perkins and Price were keen to up the ante during today’s second outing and improve on their 19th and 22nd placings respectively.
“I think we were both pumped to get back in the cars and get on with the second race today, †exclaimed Jack Perkins. “Unfortunately it turned out to be one of those frustrating days in motorsport where the little things seem to cost you the most. â€
Perkins was the first to suffer, after building on his pace and moving into a strong top twenty position, coming into turn 11 on just the eighth lap the engine in his #11 Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden Commodore cut out due to a suspected electrical fault and despite the frantic efforts of Jack it was unable to be restarted.
“Even after the car was towed back to the pit garage and the guys had a chance to try some different things to get it started again it just refused to turn over. It’s most probably electrical but there are so many components that could be causing the problem we’re going to have to wait to get it back into the workshop (in Melbourne) before we can find the source, †said Jack.
Team mate Shane Price fought hard throughout the first half of the race, with the team impressed by his turn of speed which netted him his fastest lap time of the weekend on lap 33. His progress was instantly dealt a setback though when on lap 42 the alternator in his car began to lose charge which had a knock on affect throughout the #7 Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore.
“The alternator provides the charge to the battery in the car and when it drops everything else suffers. The first thing is the fuel pumps which obviously are pretty critical in a race car, †stated Price.
With the team unable to change the affected alternator mid-race they instead elected to swap the quickly discharging battery for a fresh unit. Ultimately the team was forced to do this twice during the race, which blunted Price’s charge leading to a final race placing of 22nd.
For team owner Larry Perkins the drama of today didn’t take the glimmer off the performance of his rookie drivers over the course of the weekend. “We’ve seen definite forward progress by both Shane and Jack this weekend. Every session they’ve gotten quicker and quicker and considering the level of competition they are up against I think their results show signs they have a lot of promise, †he said.
“At the start of the year I think there were a lot of people who thought we’d taken a huge risk to put two rookie drivers on the grid, but this weekend has proven that we haven’t selected two lemons. I’ve asked a lot of both Jack and Shane and they’ve stepped up to the mark, their performance this weekend bodes well for the year ahead and round by round I think they’ll take steps towards securing top ten finishes, †Larry added.
Looking Ahead
The second Round of the 2007 V8 Supercar season takes teams across the Nulabor to Western Australia and the short, but highly technical Barbagallo Raceway. This is a track that has witnessed success at the highest levels for the Jack Daniel’s Racing team over the years but poses the first of many fresh challenges for the teams rookie drivers Jack Perkins and Shane Price.
“I know it’s a track that the team has done well on in recent years so we have lots of very good data about how to setup the cars, but it’s our first new track and that will mean both Shane and I will have to learn the ropes pretty quickly. It’s a short track but has some very technical sections so it’s another challenge but one I think we’re all eager for, †explained Jack Perkins.
Round 1 – Clipsal 500, Adelaide
Race Two – Perkins DNF, Price 22nd
Perkins – forced to retire with an unknown electrical problem
Price – pits twice during the race with an alternator concern
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