Stone Brothers Racing Team Ready To Fight Back in 2007

The Stone Brothers Racing team has vowed to fight back in 2007, unveiling the Caltex Racing and JELD-WEN Motorsport BF Falcons they believe will help them reclaim the dominance they held during their hat-trick of championships in ’03, ’04 and ’05.

After a disappointing 2006 by SBR standards, the team has delved deep in the off season to come back with the solid race package and engineering excellence SBR is renowned for.

For SBR’s drivers, Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall and JELD-WEN Motorsport’s James Courtney, anything less than race wins and Championships will not be good enough.

For Courtney, entering his second full V8 Supercar season after finishing 11th in last year’s Championship, the bar has been raised.

“This year it’s definitely race wins and challenging for the Championship that’s on the agenda. I don’t think anyone is going to be happy with anything less, ” says Courtney.

“Previously in all the other categories that I’ve been in, the first half of my first season has been trying, the second half has been good and then the following year I have won the championship. So I’d like to keep that trend going. ”

Ingall says SBR want the number one back and it shows in their preparation.

“The feeling at SBR right now is definitely better. Last year was a disaster in a lot of respects and people in the team were disappointed. It wasn’t an effort that was worthy of a Championship team and it didn’t start well for us from the word go.

“This year we are going in with a more known quantity with the race car. We are making really good progress and there is a lot more to come, ” promises Ingall.

“It’s a matter of don’t reinvent the wheel. Come out with a good strong solid package, get the first couple of races out of the way and then start building, getting the car going quicker and really hit it hard from there. ”

SBR Team Manager and Co-owner Ross Stone says changes in the off season have created a fresh atmosphere at SBR.

“There has been a bit of a shuffle with roles in the team this year and we have a few new people on board due to the expansion of the team to run a Fujitsu car. The changes have freshened the place up and the attitude of the team is great, ” says Stone.

“Some people say that last year was the year we had to have after our success in ’03, ’04 and ‘05. I don’t necessarily agree but regardless, we don’t want to find ourselves in that position again and the team certainly has the passion to be back up there challenging for the Championship. ”

With V8 Supercars Australia introducing a new qualifying format in 2007 Ingall and Courtney have spent time in the off season with their respective engineers looking at strategy. Both agree that it will mix the grid up a bit.

“The new qualifying format is definitely going to give more teams a shot at getting into the top ten. It works well with Formula One at the moment; you just have to make sure you get through that first cut off or you will be in trouble, ” says Courtney.

“I guess everyone will be keeping an eye on everyone else in the first couple of knockout qualifying sessions until each team establishes a set strategy. ”

Ingall feels the new qualifying format will benefit the Caltex Racing team.

“Qualifying is going to be better for us, for myself in particular. I’ve never been great at the shoot out, that’s a documented fact, ” says Ingall.

“These cars are fairly unique and the control tyre that we run on is fairly tricky to get that one lap on green tyres so I’m happy the shoot out is gone for the shorter races.

“The new system is going to be very entertaining and that’s the important thing. It’s still going to be challenging because you have three sessions and three sets of tyres so you want to try to punch in a time on one set of tyres.

“There’s going to be a lot of strategy on how to approach it. I think it’s going to be good. ”

As for the 2007 JELD-WEN Motorsport livery, Courtney is happy to stand out in the crowd.

“You won’t miss the JELD-WEN Motorsport Falcon this year. There are no other cars like it out there on the grid so it will stand out, ” laughs Courtney.

“JELD-WEN and myself were both new to the team last year so we’ve kind of been finding our feet together.

“JELD-WEN has been great to me and fans are now starting to recognize and look for the JELD-WEN car so hopefully we can get some race wins for them and pay back their faith in me. ”

Ingall is equally complimentary of Caltex, now entering its eighth year with SBR.

“Caltex has been part of V8 Supercars and part of SBR for a long time. It was fantastic to repay their loyalty to SBR, the category and motor racing with the number one last year.

“They know the business and they know how tough the business can be as well. When you are having a rough year like last year they understand that. The ones that survive are the ones that come out fighting and that’s what we are going to do this year.

Ingall concludes, “Caltex know me, they know SBR and they know that we won’t give up until we get that number one on the side of the car again. ”

SBR will test the Caltex Racing and JELD-WEN Motorsport Falcons along with the team’s Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series entry at Queensland Raceway tomorrow.