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Stone Brothers Racing’s James Courtney has snatched pole position by less than a hundredth of a second from Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom this afternoon for Round Seven of the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship at Queensland Raceway.
Courtney set a blistering 1min 10.7351 lap to claim his second V8 Supercar pole position in his career. He took his first pole at Adelaide in 2007.
The SBR driver said he was surprised to end up on pole after struggling to even make the top 20 in leg one of qualifying.
“To be honest I didn’t expect to end up where we did,” Courtney said.
“I had to use two sets of tyres to get inside the top 20. It was a really tough session.”
Courtney is chasing his maiden V8 Supercar round victory and is hopeful that can take place this weekend.
“It’s looking like it could be a good round for us here this weekend and hopefully we can pull it off. The plan is to get a good start and drive off… I have my fingers crossed that this is my weekend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Winterbottom said he was just happy to be on the front row of the grid for the opening race of the round, which takes place at 3:35 this afternoon.
“You always aim to get pole, but to miss it by that much… there wasn’t much in it,” Winterbottom said.
“It’s always good to be on the front row and I’m in front of the guys I am fighting with in the Championship. We just need to keep doing what we are doing.
“I thought this round would be our weakest track and we are still showing that at our weakest track that we are on the front row, so I’m happy with that.
“The car feels really good. It felt good yesterday at race pace. Courtney is quick as well, but if he and I are capable of doing the times that we did in practice yesterday, then we’ll hopefully get a bit of a gap (on the rest of the field) and race from there.”
Supercheap Auto Commodore driver Russell Ingall was the best of the Holdens in third and said he will be giving it everything he has in this afternoon’s race.
“I have nothing to lose; I am not racing for the Championship so the best thing that I can do is go out and win a race – however that comes about I’ll take it,” Ingall said.
But Ingall indicated that he was actually disappointed not to be further up the grid.
“I want to be the best of everyone; I am getting greedy these days,” he said.
“It was disappointing. I dropped a wheel off at the last corner. It was a real shame.
“It would have been nice to grab the pole for the team. They have done an outstanding job.
“I can’t credit them highly enough. To bring this team up to where it is – to be a race-winning contender and possibly in the future a championship (winning team) – it’s just astonishing in six months.”
Ingall believes his Commodore has a good race set-up for this afternoon.
“We were super consistent on old tyres on the practice day and the car has proven this year to be very consistent in race trim as well,” he said.
“It’s got everything at the moment. It has good qualifying pace; it’s got good race pace – I think we have all bases covered.”
Ford Performance Racing’s Steven Richards, who won the last round at Hidden Valley, provided the biggest shock of qualifying when he narrowly missed the final leg after posting the 11th fastest time in leg two.
He blamed an error on his flying lap in leg two for missing the top-10 session.
“I made a mistake on my good set of tyres and went a bit deep; that cost me and I just didn’t have time (for another flying lap),” he said.
Richards was still upbeat about his chances of claiming a good result for the round.
“It changes the way we were hoping the weekend would plan out but we will just sit down and deal with it,” he said.
“There is no doubt we still have a fast car and we will look at how to effectively get to the front of the pack.”
Qualifying top 10
James Courtney Falcon 1:10.7351
Mark Winterbottom Falcon 1:10.7438
Russell Ingall Commodore 1:10.8066
Craig Lowndes Falcon 1:10.8503
Mark Skaife Commodore 1:10.8887
Garth Tander Commodore 1:10.9096
Will Davison Falcon 1:10.9279
Jason Richards Commodore 1:10.9303
Jamie Whincup Falcon 1:11.1371
Steven Johnson Falcon 1:11.1515
Courtney set a blistering 1min 10.7351 lap to claim his second V8 Supercar pole position in his career. He took his first pole at Adelaide in 2007.
The SBR driver said he was surprised to end up on pole after struggling to even make the top 20 in leg one of qualifying.
“To be honest I didn’t expect to end up where we did,” Courtney said.
“I had to use two sets of tyres to get inside the top 20. It was a really tough session.”
Courtney is chasing his maiden V8 Supercar round victory and is hopeful that can take place this weekend.
“It’s looking like it could be a good round for us here this weekend and hopefully we can pull it off. The plan is to get a good start and drive off… I have my fingers crossed that this is my weekend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Winterbottom said he was just happy to be on the front row of the grid for the opening race of the round, which takes place at 3:35 this afternoon.
“You always aim to get pole, but to miss it by that much… there wasn’t much in it,” Winterbottom said.
“It’s always good to be on the front row and I’m in front of the guys I am fighting with in the Championship. We just need to keep doing what we are doing.
“I thought this round would be our weakest track and we are still showing that at our weakest track that we are on the front row, so I’m happy with that.
“The car feels really good. It felt good yesterday at race pace. Courtney is quick as well, but if he and I are capable of doing the times that we did in practice yesterday, then we’ll hopefully get a bit of a gap (on the rest of the field) and race from there.”
Supercheap Auto Commodore driver Russell Ingall was the best of the Holdens in third and said he will be giving it everything he has in this afternoon’s race.
“I have nothing to lose; I am not racing for the Championship so the best thing that I can do is go out and win a race – however that comes about I’ll take it,” Ingall said.
But Ingall indicated that he was actually disappointed not to be further up the grid.
“I want to be the best of everyone; I am getting greedy these days,” he said.
“It was disappointing. I dropped a wheel off at the last corner. It was a real shame.
“It would have been nice to grab the pole for the team. They have done an outstanding job.
“I can’t credit them highly enough. To bring this team up to where it is – to be a race-winning contender and possibly in the future a championship (winning team) – it’s just astonishing in six months.”
Ingall believes his Commodore has a good race set-up for this afternoon.
“We were super consistent on old tyres on the practice day and the car has proven this year to be very consistent in race trim as well,” he said.
“It’s got everything at the moment. It has good qualifying pace; it’s got good race pace – I think we have all bases covered.”
Ford Performance Racing’s Steven Richards, who won the last round at Hidden Valley, provided the biggest shock of qualifying when he narrowly missed the final leg after posting the 11th fastest time in leg two.
He blamed an error on his flying lap in leg two for missing the top-10 session.
“I made a mistake on my good set of tyres and went a bit deep; that cost me and I just didn’t have time (for another flying lap),” he said.
Richards was still upbeat about his chances of claiming a good result for the round.
“It changes the way we were hoping the weekend would plan out but we will just sit down and deal with it,” he said.
“There is no doubt we still have a fast car and we will look at how to effectively get to the front of the pack.”
Qualifying top 10
James Courtney Falcon 1:10.7351
Mark Winterbottom Falcon 1:10.7438
Russell Ingall Commodore 1:10.8066
Craig Lowndes Falcon 1:10.8503
Mark Skaife Commodore 1:10.8887
Garth Tander Commodore 1:10.9096
Will Davison Falcon 1:10.9279
Jason Richards Commodore 1:10.9303
Jamie Whincup Falcon 1:11.1371
Steven Johnson Falcon 1:11.1515
