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[Porsche Carrera Cup AUS] Glenfords Racing Fight Back After Controversial Weekend |
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Monday, 29 May 2006 |
GLENFORDS RACING FIGHT BACK AFTER CONTROVERSIAL WEEKEND
| Attachment 16482 | | Alex Davison behind under safety car conditions due to fog in race one |
Glenfords Racing made a strong comeback at round two of the Carrera Cup Championship after a controversial beginning to race one impacted on the team's result.
The weekend started strongly for Glenfords Racing with Glenfords-DeWalt driver Alex Davison again claiming pole position, setting a lap record of 0:59.3406.
Jonathon Webb, in the Glenfords-Makita 997 GT3 Porsche continued his strong early season form by qualifying fourth with a fastest lap of 0:59.5313 seconds and Glenfords-Hitachi driver David Wall qualified ninth, also breaking the one-minute barrier with a 0:59.8248 second lap.
"Qualifying went really well with all three drivers in the top ten again. It showed we would have the pace for the weekend and also that our recent test here paid dividends as we have Alex on pole again, just as he has done all season so far," Team Manager Andy McElrea said.
With race one scheduled for a 9.00am start, heavy fog reduced visibility at the track to less than a hundred metres and the race began controversially under safety car conditions.
The pit stop window for the first compulsory pit stop race in Carrera Cup history opened on lap five and with the field still under safety car conditions Davison came in for his stop.
Pit stop regulations only gave each team one pit bay, meaning for teams such as Glenfords Racing with three cars in the championship, only one car could pit at a time. Furthermore, teams were not allowed to use air tools for the tyre changes, meaning the cars would be stationary for much longer than if the air pressured, modern equipment was allowed.
For Davison, the pit stop was running to plan until an adaptor on a brand new wrench broke, an occurrence that was impossible for the team to foresee, costing Davison the lead and rejoining the race in sixth still behind the safety car.
Webb, in the Glenfords-Makita GT3 Porsche, stopped for his pit stop on the following lap, and rejoined behind the safety car after the Glenfords Racing pit crew performed a faultless stop.
While the foggy conditions hadn't changed since the beginning of the race, the safety car controversially came in to the pits, leaving Wall to pit under full race conditions, costing the rookie driver almost a full lap. This 'penalty' only resulted through the regulations that only allowed 'low tech' tyre changing methods and one pit bay per team, regardless of their size - directly disadvantaging the larger three car teams like Glenfords Racing.
Wall battled for the remaining laps to catch up to the field and did a great job to salvage some positions and finish 16th.
With the field finally racing Davison set about getting back his lead position but while passing Anthony Tratt to claim fifth place he was caught in a tangle that resulted in a puncture to the left rear tyre, forcing the pole sitter into the pits and costing him any chance of a round victory and finished the race in 21st.
Webb who was lucky to avoid much of the drama from the race finished inside the top ten again with a ninth place.
With the Glenfords Racing drivers scattered on the grid and farther back than their speed warranted for race two, Davison and Wall, both managed great starts and fought their way back to push for a top ten finish for the race, a brilliant performance given their grid positions.
Davison finished the race in tenth position from 21st on the grid, while Wall finished 11th from 16th on the grid.
Webb in the Glenfords-Makita backed Porsche, again showed strong form and turned in a brilliant display, rising from ninth on the starting grid to finish fourth and only seconds behind the lead.
The final race again saw Davison and Wall push hard to gain vital championship points to minimize the damage from the first race.
Davison continued to show his class, consistently picking off drivers to finish sixth and just two seconds off second place.
Wall continued to show impressive speed as well as maturity for a series rookie and salvaged a strong eight position.
Webb continued to prove a model of consistency in the championship and finished an impressive fourth after gaining back a number of positions he lost early in the race.
Glenfords-Makita driver Webb was rewarded for a strong round with a fifth place overall to maintain his fifth position in the championship on 189 points.
Davison in the Glenfords-DeWalt GT3 Cup car finished the round in ninth position and dropped a position to third in the championship with 217 points.
Ironically, the unlucky Wall driving his Glenfords-Hitachi dropped to 13th in the championship with 90 points after finishing equal 11th for the round.
Round three of the Wright Patton Shakespeare Carrera Cup is at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin from June 30 to July 2.
Championship standings after round two:
| Pos. | Driver | Points | | 1 | Craig Baird | 354 | | 2 | Jim Richards | 282 | | 3 | Alex Davison | 217 | | 4 | David Reynolds | 210 | | 5 | Jonathon Webb | 189 | | 6 | Ian Dyk | 180 | | 7 | David Russell | 156 | | 8 | Dean Fiore | 138 | | 9 | Aaron Caratti | 123 | | 10 | Peter Fitzgerald | 102 | | | 13 | David Wall | 90 |
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