Grubby
19-02-2003, 10:04 AM
This was taken from V8X..............finally some real info.
Four new season racers hit the track for the first time today, with Stone Brothers testing the new Pirtek BA Falcon in Queensland while OzEmail Racing tested its BA Falcon alongside the two new VY Commodores of the Holden Racing Team at Winton.
The HRT has shown it will again be an early season pace setter, it's run today registering a series of competitive laps with no problems. Team spokesman Paul Weissel said the team's goal today was to 'be around the ballpark' and a series of times in reported to be in the low-23s would certainly meat that goal.
Mark Skaife's #1 HRT VY was ready to run early in the day, while Todd Kelly's new car was readied later in the morning for his first run in the red team.
Sharing the Winton track was John Bowe and Brad Jones, the OzEmail team shaking down Bowe's new car after its launch earlier in the week in Sydney.
OzEmail spokesman Dale Brittain said Bowe's new stead was slowed in the morning by steering rack problems, but once that was sorted out they were able to put in some lap times within half a second of the #1 HRT car.
He said the biggest problem requiring a rethink for the team was the front splitter. "They are struggling a little bit with the front splitter, they are saying the car is falling onto it under brakes so there will need to be a bit of a rethink there.
"Today was only meant to be a shakedown session, so in that sense it was a good day."
Up north Marcos Ambrose was all smiles after debuting his car despite not being able to match the times of his well tested AU Falcon. The SBR team spent more than 2500 man hours from design to finished product to get the car on the track today, and Ambrose says half the team hasn’t even slept for two days.
"Any car is going to be raw, the effort required just to get it here today was a miracle," Ambrose said as Russell Ingall settled into the cockpit. "It is going to be a match for the AU pretty quickly, and then we can set off after the HRT.
"I'm out here having a good day today."
He said Ingall's experience was going to be critical in getting the new cars sorted quickly.
"It is great to have him here with the team, he'll help us push ahead with the BA."
All three teams are planning to test again next week when more meaningful times should be recorded.
Grubby
Four new season racers hit the track for the first time today, with Stone Brothers testing the new Pirtek BA Falcon in Queensland while OzEmail Racing tested its BA Falcon alongside the two new VY Commodores of the Holden Racing Team at Winton.
The HRT has shown it will again be an early season pace setter, it's run today registering a series of competitive laps with no problems. Team spokesman Paul Weissel said the team's goal today was to 'be around the ballpark' and a series of times in reported to be in the low-23s would certainly meat that goal.
Mark Skaife's #1 HRT VY was ready to run early in the day, while Todd Kelly's new car was readied later in the morning for his first run in the red team.
Sharing the Winton track was John Bowe and Brad Jones, the OzEmail team shaking down Bowe's new car after its launch earlier in the week in Sydney.
OzEmail spokesman Dale Brittain said Bowe's new stead was slowed in the morning by steering rack problems, but once that was sorted out they were able to put in some lap times within half a second of the #1 HRT car.
He said the biggest problem requiring a rethink for the team was the front splitter. "They are struggling a little bit with the front splitter, they are saying the car is falling onto it under brakes so there will need to be a bit of a rethink there.
"Today was only meant to be a shakedown session, so in that sense it was a good day."
Up north Marcos Ambrose was all smiles after debuting his car despite not being able to match the times of his well tested AU Falcon. The SBR team spent more than 2500 man hours from design to finished product to get the car on the track today, and Ambrose says half the team hasn’t even slept for two days.
"Any car is going to be raw, the effort required just to get it here today was a miracle," Ambrose said as Russell Ingall settled into the cockpit. "It is going to be a match for the AU pretty quickly, and then we can set off after the HRT.
"I'm out here having a good day today."
He said Ingall's experience was going to be critical in getting the new cars sorted quickly.
"It is great to have him here with the team, he'll help us push ahead with the BA."
All three teams are planning to test again next week when more meaningful times should be recorded.
Grubby