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Kelly third as Skaife fights back to seventh in opening race in Bahrain 400 |
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Sunday, 26 November 2006 |
HOLDEN Racing Team duo Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife have started their Bahrain 400 campaign with solid results in the opening race of three on the 3.6kilometre circuit in Sakhir.
Kelly ended up finishing third behind race winner Jason Bright and Garth Tander, while Skaife crossed the line in seventh spot.
It was something of a lonely race for Kelly, who worked his way past
James Courtney’s Falcon on a restart on lap eight to take third place.
However, he rejoined from his lap 11 pit stop behind the Gold Coaster’s
car and had to fight has way back past again through the sweeping
section on the far side of the circuit to run what would become a
lonely race to the finish of the 27 lap event.
Skaife worked his way to seventh on the opening lap until being passed by Steven Richards on the restart on lap eight.
The fivetime Bathurst winner quickly grabbed the spot back at the
beginning of the next lap with a nice move into the first gear hairpin
at the end of the front straight.
He would cross the line seventh, but once again behind Richards who got
back in front of Skaife after the HRT driver was delayed entering his
pit bay by the departing Tander Commodore that had stalled in the
adjacent pit box.
Earlier in the day, Kelly had taken the #22 Commodore to the third
fastest time in qualifying behind Tander and Bright. In the Top 10
Shootout he produced a solid lap that put him fourth on the grid
alongside brother Rick.
Things didn’t go to plan for Skaife, who put the #2 car into the top 10 shootout with fourth fastest time.
A spin at turn one on his Shootout lap ruined any chance of another
pole position for 2006 and the fivetime champion was forced to start
from 10 th on the grid, which improved to ninth after Greg Murphy was
given a penalty.
HRT QUOTEBOOK
Todd Kelly (#22 Holden Racing Team Commodore VZ) “It was a little
bit of a quiet race for me actually. Towards the end I had no pressure
on me and Jason (Bright) and Garth (Tander) were too far in front, so I
had a play with the (antiroll) bars to see if I could make the car a
little better with tomorrow in mind. It was quite a good fight with
James (Courtney) there for a while but we had a slow pit stop today.
Looking after the tyres tomorrow will be a really big issue.”
Mark Skaife (#2 Holden Racing Team Commodore VZ) “The car was
definitely better than yesterday. The mistake in the Top 10 Shootout
really knocked us around though and we were good enough to be in the
top five on speed. But it was just a stupid error in the Shootout. To
get back up to seventh is probably a few spots away still from where we
should have been. The car isn’t quite there yet in terms of setup but
better.”
Race 1 Results, Round 12, V8 Supercar Series, Bahrain International Circuit NB. Grid position in brackets
1. Jason Bright, #6 CAT Falcon BA, (2)
2. Garth Tander, #16 Toll HSV Commodore VZ, (1)
3. Todd Kelly, #22 HRT Commodore VZ, (4)
4. Rick Kelly, #15 Toll HSV Commodore VZ, (3)
5. James Courtney, #4 JeldWen Falcon BA, (5)
6. Steven Richards, #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VZ, (6)
7. Mark Skaife, #2 HRT Commodore VZ, (9)
8. Mark Winterbottom, #5 FPR Falcon BA, (15)
9. Craig Lowndes, #888 Betta Falcon BA, (8)
10. Paul Dumbrell, #11 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VZ, (11)
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 November 2006 )
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