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Glenfords Racing Finish Off 2006 With A Season Best Result |
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Sunday, 10 December 2006 |
 After setting the 28th fastest time in practice, Marshall and the Glenfords crew were confident the car had a lot more time for this morning's qualifying session.
Smoke from Victoria's bushfires had made its way over the Phillip Island circuit overnight and in the 20-minute qualifying session, Marshall in the Ford Glenfords-AEG Falcon set the 23rd fastest time with a 1.36.3404 amidst the smoke haze, the teams best qualifying result for the season and a fitting way to finish the final qualifying session for the season.
 Unfortunately, the opening race of the round on Saturday was virtually
over before it began for Glenfords Racing as a fuel pressure problem,
identified on the warm up lap, caused the car to cut out on the opening
laps, forcing Marshall into the pits for repairs.
While disappointing, the mechanical problem was one of very few for the
team all season, a commendable effort in their first season of the V8
Supercar Championship.
A brilliant start from Marshall from the rear of the grid saw the Ford
Glenfords-AEG Falcon move up four positions on the opening lap and
another two on lap two to sit in 26th position.
Russell Ingall incurred a drive through penalty, elevating Marshall to 25th before the Glenfords Racing car pitted on lap six.
A quick stop from the pit crew had Marshall in 27th then 26th after passing Shane Price on lap 14.
Moving up to 24th Marshall set upon Brad Jones with ten laps remaining
but was unable to close the gap in time and finished 24th.
A clean start from Marshall allowed the Glenfords-AEG diver to move up a number of positions in the opening laps.
A number of incidents occurred on the opening laps but Marshall avoided
them and continued to climb up through the field to 16th.
Pitting on lap seven the team made a clean and fast stop but as
Marshall was making his way down pit lane, Jason Bargwanna pulled out
into Marshall and collected the Glenfords-AEG Flacon, although Marshall
was able to continue and Bargwanna was served a drive through penalty
for the incident.
Running in 15th position after all stops had been made, Marshall set
about claiming his strongest race finish for the season, barring the
reverse grid races early season.
Late in the race, Steve Owen ran too deep at turn four under pressure
from Marshall and surrendered 14th to the Glenfords-AEG Falcon.
From there on, with the team inside the top 15 for the first time
Marshall made sure of the position and took the final chequered flag
for the year in a season best 14th position.
Quotes:
Marcus Marshall
"We knew the car was good in practice but we had some problems with the
tyres so we never put out a good time but we had a good qualifying
session and moved up a lot of positions which is always encouraging."
"The first race was a bit of a non event for us with fuel pressure
problems but we had a really good car today and it showed on the track;
we cam from the back of the grid to finish 24th in race two then climb
up to 14th in the final race which is a really pleasing way to finish
off our first year in the championship."
Paul Cruickshank
"We've made it through our first year and it was as tough as we
expected but we've had some really positive results and the whole team
has done a great job so I really want to thank them."
"In particular I'd like to say thank to Jimmy (James Hewlett) who is
leaving us and going back home to New Zealand with his family. Jimmy
has been with me since we started PCR so it will certainly be different
without him.
"He's done a great job for many years now and the whole team wish him
the best and look forward to catching up with him whenever they are
over in New Zealand.
"Today was a good way to finish the season, we had two strong races
after a few problems yesterday and finished with our best race result
for the year so we're pretty happy and look forward to 2007."
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