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Marshall Sets Up Weekend After Strong Race In Darwin |
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Sunday, 02 July 2006 |
Glenfords Racing's Marcus Marshall today finished a strong 22nd in race one after qualifying in 30th position today at Hidden Valley.
The strong opening race for the team on the first day of the second half of the year demonstrated the team's continued improvement to date.
Yesterday a solid practice session saw the team focus on race setup and working on a number of settings after missing much of their recent test day due to poor weather.
Marshall, in the Glenfords AEG Falcon set the 30th fastest time in the session but was less than 0.8 seconds of the top ten in an encouraging start for the Glenfords crew up north.
While the team maintained their position of 30th in qualifying, the consistent pace in the Glenfords AEG Flacon would set Marshall up for a strong first race in hot and trying conditions.
A clean start saw Marshall hold 30th position as the field filed in one-by-one behind each other.
With the Glenfords AEG number 20 not making the most of the new tyres in the opening laps, Marshall still managed to pull away from Tony Ricciardello while a spin by Brad Jones moved Marshall up another position to 29th.
As the temperature continued to climb in the cabin to 44 degrees, Marshall moved up another spot thanks to a strong move on the inside of Steve Ellery paid off for 28th and then up to 27th after Warren Luff stopped early with car troubles.
Pitting for fresh tyres on lap 11 the Glenfords crew completed their fastest pit stop for the year to put Marshall in a strong position rejoining in 25, just behind Andrew Jones.
Pushing hard and catching John Bowe, after Jones overrun the first turn, Marshall soon found himself on the bumper of Jason Bargwanna, who spun and rejoined the race in front of the Glenfords AEG Falcon.
With only a handful of laps remaining, Marshall held on to the rear of Bargwanna but despite the balance of the car improving on older tyres could not find a way around before the chequered flag.
A strong and consistent Marshall finished in 22nd position, leaving Glenfords Racing well placed heading into race two and three tomorrow.
Marshall will start tomorrow's reverse grid, second race in 10th position at 11.00am with the third and final race of round five starting at 2.45pm.
| MARCUS MARSHALL |
"The car felt strong in practice; I would have liked to have taken a few extra tenths of at the end, but we have a car that is getting better every time we head out onto the track."
"We missed a lot of time in our recent test last week so we looked at a few things here that we were going to do back then and we got some knowledge out of the practice session in a number of areas.
"In the race I made a good start but the car has been struggling a little on green tyres, but it was still pretty good and as the race went on the balance on the car improved.
"The guys did a great stop, their fastest for the year, so that is always great knowing you can rely on them to get you back out on the track quickly and in good position.
"It was hot out there but I feel really good now.we knew it would be hot so I've got myself fit and ready for the round so the heat will be no problem." |
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| PAUL CRUICKSHANK |
"Today was a good day, Marcus drove the car really well, the boys did their best time in a pitstop and there's not a scratch on the car so I am pretty happy."
"What we need to do now is consistently finish in these strong positions, through good racing, good strategy and good race setups. So tomorrow will be a real test for us to see if we can back up again from what was a pretty good day." |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 January 2007 )
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