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Russell Extends Class Points Lead At Phillip Island |
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
| Attachment 16894 |
| Round 4 of the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship at Phillip Island Raceway in Victoria was another strong weekend for Newcastle teenager Drew Russell. |
Round 4 of the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship at Phillip Island Raceway in Victoria was another strong weekend for Newcastle teenager Drew Russell.
Running in the Ferntree Gully Holden Privateers Cup - for older cars on a slower tyre compared to the outright competitors - Russell was again the dominant force, putting in a faultless weekend of driving.
In the most recent round of the series at Eastern Creek in July, Russell took the class points aboard the teams Honda S2000, which was called into action when the Go Karts Go Mazda RX7 was sidelined.
At Phillip Island, the Global Racing Industries pilot got back behind the wheel of the rotary-engined RX7, and turned a three point class lead entering the weekend into a 48 point advantage.
Russell set a time of 1:51.0367 in qualifying, to secure first in Privateers Cup and 11th outright for the first of three races around the fast and challenging layout.
Bettering his qualifying laptime by half a second, the 18 year-old maintained the position during the opening race, getting involved in an inter-class battle along the way.
“It’s great to be able to start to do some running in this car,”
Russell enthused. “The Mazda isn’t that different to the Honda which
I’ve driven for the last couple of years.
“In terms of handling and braking, it’s much the same, but this car has
got a lot more stick in a straight line. This will be really our first
full race weekend with it, so as I get more seat-time, the speed will
continue to improve.
“I was battling with [outright class driver] Tony Alford and Mark Cohen
for the first six or so laps which was good fun. Once I was able to get
past Mark, it was about building a gap on him, and seeing if we could
stay with Tony. He wasn’t able to get too far away which was
satisfying.”
There was more of the same in Races 2 and 3. Continuing to improve his
laptimes, Russell kept out of trouble in Race 2 to secure not only
first in Privateers Cup, but seventh outright.
Ending the weekend on a strong note in Race 3, Russell sealed maximum
points from the weekend with another class win, 10th in the outright
results and a best race lap of the weekend, 1:50.0493.
“This weekend has been fairly good to us,” said Russell. “The guys have
done a great job, so credit goes to them for giving me a car that I
could go out there in and drive as hard as it would go every lap.
“The car was performing well and our laptimes improved with every
session; by the end of the weekend the times were comparable with the
outright cars.
“We’ve had a great run of results since entering the series. But we
know it can all change very quickly in motorsport, so we’ll just have
to keep working hard until the end of the year and look to keep on
progressing.”
Round 5 of the STS Australian Performance Car Championship will be held
at South Australia’s Mallala Raceway, on September 15-17.
Between now and then, action from Phillip Island can be seen on Speedweek (SBS) next Sunday, August 27, at 12 noon.
Global Racing Industries thanks the support of Go Karts Go, Ric Shaw
Performance, Oran Park Raceway, The Kloster Group, Koala Glass and
Bells Radiators.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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