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First Time For Everything For Blanchard |
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Saturday, 03 March 2007 |
Tim Blanchard continued his dream start to the Clipsal 500 weekend, winning the opening two races of the Australian Formula Ford Championship in front of a super tight field on the 3.22km Adelaide street circuit.
Blanchard started his Clipsal campaign having never being quickest in practice, had a pole position, or won a race- he has now done all three.
Blanchard won the opening race from pole position 0.1802 seconds ahead of Nick Percat, followed by James Moffat of Sonic Motor Racing in third.
In a race that once again claimed several casualties reducing it to
only three completed laps, drivers were unable to post the lap times
seen in yesterday's session that would have seen Tim Slade's lap record
set here last year broken.
Blanchard's win gave him the best possible result with twenty-one
championship points, earning one point for qualifying first for the
rounds opening race, and twenty for his opening race line honours.
"It's great to get my first win under the belt and capitalise on my
pole position, hopefully I can keep it up and get my first round win."
CAMS Rising Star Ashley Walsh continued a horror weekend having
excessive damage from yesterday's qualifying session repaired
overnight, only to clip the first chicane and cannon into a wall for
the second time in two days.
"It was just a huge lapse in concentration really, I was in cruise mode behind Tim and just had a brain fade," said Walsh.
"It's disappointing because the car was so fast and my splits were
quicker than qualifying before the accident, I've damaged the front
left of the car so hopefully it will be good to go for the second race."
Troy Woodger and Daniel Cotton had their Spectrum 011's come together,
turning Cotton around and into the wall, damaging his front right wheel
and steering, forcing him out of the race.
"It's disappointing to have a race ended like that; there is only
minimal damage to the front left arms though so we will look ahead to
race two."
Team BRM's Paul Pittam also tangled with fellow South Australian Trent
Ulmer, turning him around before Walsh's incident resulted in a second
safety car reeling the field back in.
Drivers were alerted to the final lap on the restart, and Blanchard
managed to keep Nick Percat out at the ninth corner and take the
chequered flag followed by James Moffat, CAMS Rising Star Kristian
Lindbom and Grant Doulman.
Brad Lowe did exceptionally well given only three race laps were
completed, moving from 24th on the grid to finish eleventh after
damaging his car during practice on Thursday.
Race 2
Blanchard could have been considered lucky to win the second race, with
Nick Percat being black flagged just prior to passing him at the ninth
turn.
It was later revealed that coolant overflow was the cause of Percat's
black flag, robbing him of the chance for his maiden Australian Formula
Ford race victory.
"It is frustrating to be blacked flag for overflow, but I will do my
best to move through the field from the rear tomorrow," explained
Percat.
However Blanchard wasn't entirely happy with the set up of his Jaylec Mygale and will change it for the third race.
"We changed a few things for the second race, but the car was much
quicker this morning compared to race two so we will revert back to
that set up for tomorrow," said Blanchard
Cams Rising Star Ashley Walsh and Victorian Taz Douglas started from
the back of the grid in the second race, quickly making up for their
mistakes from the opening race and finishing a very impressive fifth
and eighth respectively earning valuable points.
Daniel Cotton had his race ended for a second time in as many starts
after running into a stationary Asher Johnston when rounding turn five.
James Moffat continued a consistent weekend, finishing .008 of a second
behind Blanchard to finish second, as Cams Rising Star Kristian Lindbom
snuck passed Glen Wood with a brave move at turn eight to pinch third.
Schedule
Sunday 4 March
Race 3 9:50am 8 laps
For race 1 Results follow this link:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/03/2007.ADEL.R7
For race 2 results follow this link:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/03/2007.ADEL.R11
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