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Team VIP Petfoods' Baird on Top at Winton With New Lap Record |
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Saturday, 19 May 2007 |
Team VIP Petfoods' Craig Baird has triumphantly set a new lap record while leading a trio of drivers across the line in today's first race of Winton's Carrera Cup series round two, well and truly announcing his commitment to chasing back-to-back championships.
The hard-fought race saw the quartet of Baird, Marcus Marshall, Alex Davison and David Reynolds start out nose-to-tail, with the coming laps seeing a gap gradually open, no doubt assisted by Baird's new lap record of 1.24.42 on lap five.
Today's race win continued Baird's winning form with an impressive
qualifying session earlier in the day seeing the defending champion and
current series leader top the time sheets for a second day running
after laying down some impressive laps during yesterday's two practice
sessions.
"Today was a great race, with the four of us nose-to-tail for a while there," said Baird.
"To lead the three of them across the line, after qualifying fastest and yesterday's practice result, was just perfect.
"Also with the history I have here is it really satisfying to be up the
front, defending my series lead and putting some great results towards
what hopefully will be a second Carrera Cup championship."
Baird's fellow Team VIP Petfoods' teammates, the dynamic father and son
duo of Tony and Klark Quinn, fought a battle of their own further down
in the pack which eventually saw Tony take bragging rights over son
Klark with the pair finishing 12th and 13th respectively.
"He was closing in on me for a while there, but the old fellow picked up a bit of extra 'umph' and got going," laughed Tony.
"It has been a good day for us here, with Klark and I and of course
with Craig up the front, so it is looking good for tomorrow's races at
this stage."
This weekend’s Carrera Cup round comes ahead of the team’s second
Nürburgring 24 hour assault next month. The team received international
recognition after finishing ninth outright in last year’s event and
will be in serious contention for this year’s race with the use of
their new car – the Porsche 991 GT3 RSR (Type 997), which will be
officially unveiled at Queensland Raceway this Thursday the 24th from
12 noon to 1.30pm.
Today’s results:
Qualifying
1. Craig Baird (Team VIP Petfoods) - 1.23.45
2. Alex Davison - 1.23.53
3. David Reynolds - 1.23.60
16. Tony Quinn (Team VIP Petfoods) - 1.25.74
19. Klark Quinn (Team VIP Petfoods) - 1.26.03
Race One
1. Craig Baird (Team VIP Petfoods)
2. Alex Davison
3. Marcus Marshall
12. Tony Quinn (Team VIP Petfoods)
13. Klark Quinn (Team VIP Petfoods)
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