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[Australian Motorsport] Shannons Production Car Championship - Round 7 Qualifying |
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Saturday, 03 December 2005 |
RYAN THE MAN AGAIN
Continuing his recent qualifying form David Ryan was again the fastest and will start the scratch race (race one) off pole position tomorrow at the final round of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship.
His Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo was over half a second faster than the Class A champion Drew Russell in his Honda S2000 on the Eastern Creek circuit. Ryan has set his sights on another round win in the championship after turbo problems early in the series put him out of calculations.
Falcons will occupy the second row of the grid for race one with Veijo Phillips (XR8 Turbo) and John Houlder (XR8 V8) ahead of the fastest Class B cars, the Thrifty Toyota Celica of Steve Briffa and multiple rally champ Neal Bates at the helm of his twin brother Rick’s Toyota Corolla Sportivo.
Champion elect Colin Osborne’s Celica will start out of position seven with Nick Dunkley’s XR6 Turbo alongside, which survived an engine fire earlier in the day.
Keene and newcomer Chris Delfsma (XR8) are on the fifth row while Phil Alexander (Toyota MR2) and Alan Shephard (Honda Integra) were on the next line.
The seventh row comprised the XR8 of Matt Brady and the first of the small Class C cars, the class champion Daniel Natoli (Proton Satria) who has to beat home the Class B cars of Shephard and Trevor Keene (Celica) in the Handicap races (two and three) to take third in the outright stakes.
After outings in sports cars and racing cars, Stephen Borness has his production car race aboard a Toyota MR2 while Leigh Mertens (Proton) will be busy holding on to his Class C second place from Lauren Gray (Toyota Echo Sportivo) who starts immediately behind.
Inside the rising female racer who is also in a Formula 3 racing car this weekend, will be motor racing magazine editor Tim Robson in a BMW 323i.
Darren Best is in position 19 in the Ford Focus, marginally faster than another newcomer Steven Thomas (Proton), and the second female in the field, Tiegan Butchers at the helm of the potent Citroen Xsara for this meeting.
Only Richard Gartner failed to set a time, the Honda Integra in his charge being plagued with engine computer problems throughout the session.
The final round of the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship will be contested over three races on Sunday December 4 at Eastern Creek. The first is a six-lap scratch race at 9:50 am and will be followed by two Handicap events over eight and ten laps respectively where Class C start first, followed by Class B and then Class A. The handicapping is designed to have the fastest in each finishing together.
EASTERN CREEK ROUND QUALIFYING:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Class | Time | | 1 | David Ryan | Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo | A | 1:50.4882 | | 2 | Drew Russell | Honda S2000 | A | 1:51.0821 | | 3 | Veijo Phillips | Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo | A | 1:52.6710 | | 4 | John Houlder | Ford Falcon XR8 | A | 1:53.1833 | | 5 | Steve Briffa | Toyota Celica | B | 1:53.5358 | | 6 | Neil Bates | Toyota Corolla Sportivo | B | 1:54.5282 | | 7 | Colin Osborne | Toyota Celica | B | 1:54.7412 | | 8 | Nick Dunkley | Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo | A | 1:55.0677 | | 9 | Trevor Keene | Toyota Celica | B | 1:56.0446 | | 10 | Chris Delfsma | Ford Falcon XR8 | A | 1:56.1937 | | 11 | Phil Alexander | Toyota MR2 | B | 1:56.3205 | | 12 | Allan Shephard | Honda Integra Type R | B | 1:56.4474 | | 13 | Matthew Brady | Ford Falcon XR8 | A | 1:57.4110 | | 14 | Daniel Natoli | Proton Satria GTi | C | 1:58.1894 | | 15 | Stephen Borness | Toyota MR2 | B | 1:58.5011 | | 16 | Leigh Mertens | Proton Satria GTi | C | 1:58.6170 |
Points Table:
| Driver | Points | | OUTRIGHT POINTS | | Colin Osborne | 274 | | Drew Russell | 213 | | Allan Shephard | 172 | | Daniel Natoli | 170 | | Trevor Keene | 168 | | Leigh Mertens | 157 | | Scott Anderson | 146 | | Nick Dunkley | 108 | | John Houlder | 100 | | Dane Rudolph | 99 | | Lauren Gray | 95 | | Veijo Phillips | 77 | | David Ryan | 64 | | Derek Hocking | 58 | | Steve Briffa | 52 | | Michael Craig | 44 | | David Mertens | 31 | | Martin Doxey | 30 | | Darren Best | 28 | | Shane Baker | 25 | | Rick Bates | 22 | | CLASS A | | Drew Russell | 397 | | Scott Anderson | 275 | | John Houlder | 234 | | Nick Dunkley | 228 | | Veijo Phillips | 211 | | David Ryan | 176 | | Derek Hocking | 85 | | Michael Craig | 69 | | CLASS B | | Colin Osborne | 520 | | Trevor Keene | 370 | | Allan Shephard | 358 | | Steve Briffa | 143 | | Rick Bates | 64 | | CLASS C | | Daniel Natoli | 488 | | Leigh Mertens | 361 | | Lauren Gray | 356 | | Dane Rudolph | 299 | | Darren Best | 127 | | David Mertens | 119 | | Martin Doxey | 72 | | Shane Baker | 63 |
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