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Blanchard Sets The Pace In Practice |
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Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
The largest field of Formula Ford drivers since the introduction of the Fiesta engine took to the Clipsal 500 track today for their first practice session of the season around the streets of Adelaide.
Tim Blanchard posted the quickest time of the day during the second session with a 1:27.5248 in his brand new Jaylec Mygale SJ07A, with CAMS Rising Star Ashley Walsh close behind with a time of 1:27.6255.
CAMS Rising Star Ashley Walsh set the pace early in an interrupted
first practice session that made things difficult for drivers to get
any rhythm at all, with two separate incidents causing the red flag to
be waved.
Walsh posted the fastest time of the opening session with a 1:27.7786
while Victorian Taz Douglas was just 0.1002 seconds adrift in his debut
Australian Formula Ford event.
"It's still early stages but I'm happy with the first session, we made
a few changes as the car was slightly understeering so we will see how
it goes this afternoon," said CAMS Rising Star Ashley Walsh.
"The larger wheels will make a difference this year, they allow for
more mid-corner grip and allow you to be a bit more aggressive about
your driving."
Walsh was referring to the 6" front and 7" rear control performance
wheels introduced this year, replacing the 5 ½" wheels all round used
previously.
Paul Pittam's Van Diemen RF06 and Asher Johnston's Mygale SJ07A came
together on turn twelve resulting in the first red flag; both cars
received minimal damage and were expected to take to the track in the
afternoon session.
"It's very frustrating because I need as much time in the car as
possible before we begin racing, but I will be back out there this
afternoon," said Asher Johnston.
Brad Lowe damaged the entire right hand side of his Spirit WL07 when he
tangled with the wall bringing his session to a grinding halt; however
he still managed to be seventh quickest for the session.
The second session belonged to Tim Blanchard, after posting the third
quickest time in the morning session; Blanchard was able to break 1
minute 28 seconds and post a 1:27.5248, with CAMS Rising Star Ashley
Walsh .1007 behind.
Taz Douglas and CAMS Rising Star Joshua Scott also broke the 1 minute
28 sec barrier posting 1:27.6573 and 1:27.8800 respectively, as did
James Moffat rounding out the top five.
After making some minor changes in between sessions, Blanchard was very pleased with the speed of his new Mygale.
"There is much more room for development of the new car, we have worked
very hard over the last few weeks as we only got the car roughly four
weeks ago," explained Blanchard.
"I'm very happy to start the weekend well and hopefully it can continue for qualifying tomorrow."
Top five practice times:
1. Tim Blanchard 1:27.5248
2. Ashley Walsh 1:27.6255
3. Taz Douglas 1:27.6573
4. Joshua Scott 1:27.8800
5. James Moffat 1:28.0751
Qualifying will begin at 9:05am tomorrow morning, with racing beginning on Saturday.
Schedule:
Friday 2 March
9:05- 9:20am Qualifying
Saturday 3 March
9:05am Race 1
12:55pm Race 2
Sunday 4 March
9:50am Race 3
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