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Holden Young Lion Gurr Joins Record Fujitsu Series Field For Queensland |
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Tuesday, 18 July 2006 |
THE record field of 41 cars for the third round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Queensland Raceway this weekend has been boosted by the late addition of an entry for Holden Young Lion Alan Gurr.
Gurr, 24, will drive a Racer Industries-entered Commodore VY this weekend, which will be his third appearance in a V8 Supercar this year.
He competed in a Team Sirromet Wines car at the Clipsal 500 and Barbagallo main series events and works full-time at the team’s Gold Coast workshops during the week.
The car he drove in those two rounds will be driven this weekend at Queensland Raceway in the main series by Team Sirromet Wines endurance signing, Steve Ellery.
“This is just a one-off drive because I really wanted to compete at
Queensland and Steve (Ellery) is driving the car I’ve been driving,”
Gurr said.
“So we’ve put together a deal and assembled a crew for the weekend. The
Sirromet team is happy for me to go and do the race to get more
experience and, given it’s the test track we use, is a good opportunity
to put into play what I’ve learnt.”
Gurr’s #28 Commodore will be sponsored by Japanese brake company Project-Mu and will run in a teal-like colour scheme.
His entry brings the number of Holden Young Lions competing in this
weekend’s Fujitsu Series round to four, with Shane Price, Jack Perkins
and Tony D’Alberto also racing. The only one on the sidelines is Kiwi
Fabian Coulthard.
The car Gurr will drive this weekend is in fact one with which he is familiar.
He drove it as a VX Commodore in the Development Series in 2004 under
the Holden Young Lions banner and it has since been upgraded to VY
specification by Racer Industries, who have developed a kit for
converting the VX model to VY.
Gurr competed in the V8 Development Series in 2004 for both the Smiths
Trucks and HYL outfits and his victory in that year’s opening round at
Wakefield Park was the last time a Holden Commodore has won a round of
the V8 feeder championship.
While Gurr isn’t competing in the full championship, Holden’s leading
light in the series, Nathan Pretty in the Mack/Smiths Trucks Commodore,
expects a busy weekend that could change the face of the championship.
Currently second in the championship and 72 points behind leader Adam
Macrow, Pretty has proven to be in solid form at the opening rounds
with a fighting recovery to finish fourth in Adelaide and third at the
last round at Wakefield Park.
But with such a large field of cars and the regular reverse grid event
on the 3.1-kilometre circuit outside Ipswich, Pretty says it’s still
too early for a championship to be made or broken.
“It’s still a bit early in the championship to be thinking that, so my
approach to the weekend is the same for every other race,” Pretty said.
“We’re there to accumulate points and that will be tough against the
guys who test there. They’ll have an edge in that regard, one that we
don’t get unfortunately because the series doesn’t race where we test
at Winton.
“The team qualified on the front row for the same round last year so
we’ll start with the setup a little different to look for more speed
and if that doesn’t work we can go back to what worked for them last
year because clearly it was effective.
“At Queensland Raceway there are definitely some more defined passing
places, particularly under brakes. We’ve got a good braking package on
the Mack/Smiths Trucks Commodore so hopefully we can capitalise on
that.”
Of the 41 entries this weekend, one unlucky driver will miss out as the grid capacity for Queensland Raceway is capped at 40.
Making their V8 Supercar debuts this weekend are former open wheeler drivers Chris Alajajian and Mark McNally.
Alajajian will drive an ex-Simon Wills Commodore for Protecnica Racing
based in Sydney, while McNally will drive the second GMAC Racing
Commodore as team-mate to Tony D’Alberto.
The car was driven by D’Alberto last year and was the same car used by Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly to win Bathurst in 2004.
HOLDEN MOTORSPORT QUOTEBOOK
Shane Price (#77 Perkins Motorsport Commodore VZ – 5thin points)
“Unlike the first two tracks of this year, Queensland Raceway is
somewhere I’ve done some driving in a V8 Supercar on a test day with
Paul Morris’ team last year. It’s as much of a home track as I’ll get
because I’ve also raced the Formula Ford there. We’ve had a look at the
data the Perkins team has from previous years, which is a help. It’s
given both Jack and I the opportunity to analyse the lines that Steven
(Richards) and Paul (Dumbrell) take in the two slower corners so we can
jump straight into it come opening practice.”
Tony D’Alberto (#99 GMAC Commodore VZ – 17thin points) “We’ve
had the engine freshened up and had a test day at Winton at the start
of last week. We were fairly close to the pace of the main series cars
that were running on the day, which was nice. For Queensland I need to
try and get some points and stay out of trouble. Qualifying has been my
weakness this year so I need to start with the front guys and stay
there.”
THE RACING LINE – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY, ROUND 3
| Circuit Length |
3.1 kilometres |
| Circuit Direction |
Clockwise |
| Average Speed |
160 km/h |
| Maximum Speed |
250 km/h |
| Fujitsu Series Qualifying Lap Record: |
Dean Canto, Ford Falcon BA, 1m11.0955s, 2005 |
| Fujitsu Series Lap Record: |
Owen Kelly, Ford Falcon AU, 1m11.6624s, 2004 |
Current Championship Points
| Pos. |
Driver |
Team |
Car |
Points |
| 1 |
Adam Macrow |
Howard Racing |
Ford Falcon BA |
624 |
| 2 |
Nathan Pretty |
Mack/Smiths Trucks Racing |
Holden Commodore VY |
552 |
| 3 |
Wayne Wakefield |
Fuelbanc |
Ford Falcon AU |
539 |
| 4 |
Mark Porter |
MSport Racing |
Holden Commodore VZ |
532 |
| 5 |
Shane Price |
Perkins Motorsport |
Holden Commodore VZ |
522 |
2005 Results
| Pos. |
Driver |
Team |
Car |
| 1 |
Dean Canto |
Dick Johnson Racing |
Ford Falcon BA |
| 2 |
Will Davison |
Dick Johnson Racing |
Ford Falcon AU |
| 3 |
Warren Luff |
Paul Cruickshank Racing |
Ford Falcon BA |
| 4 |
Adam Macrow |
Howard Racing |
Ford Falcon BA |
| 5 |
Lee Holdsworth |
Mack/Smiths Trucks Racing |
Holden Commodore VY |
Race Format: A three-race weekend featuring two 20 minute races and a 35 minute final race. Race two is a full reverse grid event.
Television Coverage: Network Ten will telecast the Queensland
Raceway event in a dedicated Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series telecast on
July 30 from 2pm to 3pm AEST.
Previous Years
| Year |
Driver |
Car |
| Previous Winners |
| 2004 |
Owen Kelly |
Ford Falcon AU |
| 2005 |
Dean Canto |
Ford Falcon BA |
| Pole Position Winners |
| 2004 |
Owen Kelly |
Ford Falcon AU |
| 2005 |
Dean Canto |
Ford Falcon BA |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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