| Two
races and two winners but really what exactly has changed in V8 Supercars?
Yes we had Ambrose in his new Ford win a race, but SBR finished the
season on a high with a strong victory, therefore SBR continues to
be Fords top gun! No shock there huh? Meanwhile, for the evil empire
(HRT), the race provided yet another dominating performance from their
number one car and driver. And to think that HRT’s pitwork was, by
their standards, was bit sloppy and indeed allowed Ambrose to pinch
the lead in race one. Nevertheless it was good to see Skaife let
his actions do the talking. This is in contrast with another driver
who has been talking up his prowess for 2003 in the motorsport tabloids.
And just to stab the opposition they demolished a little harder, HRT
admits they still have a lot to learn with their new front wishbone
suspension set-up. I guess when they finally get the suspension balance
sorted; they will drop in the more powerful Chevy, just for good measure.
I can hear the screams now, and that ugly word again, parity!
Apparently,
AVESCO have finally found parity with Project Blueprint, so the
whingers should go away now. It’s quite interesting to learn that
the “double lip” on the Fords front spoiler is there to equal the
efficiency of the Commodore front. It would seem that despite all
of Ford’s engineering expertise, the BA was still not as sound as
the VY in this area. Now how did that happen once again…?
So
is season 2003 shaping up to being a repeat of year 2002? Apart
from the Stone Brothers effort, the other Ford teams seem to be
circulating much in the same fashion they did last year, with no
real threats emerging to the top Holden Teams. Further the older
VX is still showing its superiority to the Fords, including the
new BA. The sensation debut of Team Brock should have sent a shutter
throughout the blue oval brigade. Their immediate form was simply
sensational. With a first up win in the GP race with Bright, pole
position for Bright in the Clipsal Shootout, a 3rd place
for Bright in race one and a 3rd in race two with Holden
rookie, Paul Weel, it’s been an amazing team performance. Having
being scared by mostly mid field skirmishes throughout his Ford
career, Paul did a sensational job moving through the field and
was rewarded with his highest ever V8 Supercar placing. It was
simply unfair that he was cheated the podium by Ingall, who would
have realised his fate was sealed when he unintentionally pushed
the luckless Murphy out of third palace. In any case, the crowd
echoed their disapproval when Russell took the microphone with the
type of booing normally handed out to Skaife. With Team Brock being
immediately competitive, their presence simply forms just another
formidable Holden barrier to Ford’s ambition to be top dog in the
category.
up to next column
|
Mark
Skaife did not have all things go right for him on the weekend though.
In the first race he took the lead for Bright and held off challenges
from Ambrose to establish a large lead before the conclusion of
the pit stops. Ambrose was able to come out in front of Skaife
because of some very slick SBR pit work. Some minor adjustments
made to the Ambrose car, improved the handling and balance of the
Pirtex car. So once the Safety Car left the circuit, Ambrose was
off like the preverbal hare and at one time established an eight
second led over the number one car. With five laps to go Skaife
tried very hard to win back some time but the car was suffering
more oversteer than Skaife would have wanted. Nevertheless, Skaife
finished behind Ambrose some 2.5 seconds shy at the finish. Ambrose
had lowered the lap record several times trying to put a gap on
Skaife, and as Ambrose later admitted, “I had nothing left in the
end”. Both drivers openly admitted they enjoyed the battle.
Sunday
was a completely different story however. HRT undertook some adjustment
of suspension settings and the car felt better immediately. Throughout
the race Skaife was comfortably faster than all comers and seemed
able to pull out large gaps on all the other front-runners at will.
Despite the pressure put on Skaife by so many Safety Car interventions,
Skaife simply pulled away from Richards and Ambrose. Just before
the last Safety Car intervention, Ambrose reported a problem with
the rear of the car to his pits. Upon commencement of hostilities,
Ambrose was really struggling and was swamped by all comers. He
eventually put his car into a tyre wall when his suspension broke.
With the demise of Ambrose, Skaife was content to pull a comfortable
buffer on a hard charging Richards. Nevertheless, in race two,
it was Skaife who set all the lap records and Skaife becomes the
first driver to win Adelaide outright in consecutive years.
While
things had gone well for Bright with a third on Saturday, the Team
Brock wasted an opportunity on Sunday for a high finish with a poor
tactical decision. On Bright’s first pit stop fans were stunned
to see the pit crew fitting tyres and not fuel to his car. As poor
Glen Seton had found out the hard way several years ago, tyres are
always fitted at the last scheduled pit stop. The result for Bright
was his tyres were very second hand late in the race and therefore
in the sprint to the finish. Accordingly, he was never really able
to push that hard in the closing stages of the race to achieve better
than sixth place. Nevertheless a third place outright was a fitting
reward for the teams weekend effort.
|
