Team Bottle-O came out of Sunday's L & H 500 at Phillips Island unscathed and satisfied with a top-15 result. The weather remained clear, Tony D'Alberto and Andrew Thompson drove well and the car felt good - bring on Bathurst!
Starting mid-pack on the grid, Tony roared off the line and immediately jumped to 10th position courtesy of a blistering drive into turn one, before settling in for the 113-lap endurance race.
With plenty of thrills and spills happening around him, TD pushed up the order and led the race while others headed to the pits after the safety car was deployed on lap 21.
Andrew Thompson jumped behind the wheel of the green machine after a 33rd-lap pit stop, hitting the track ready to rumble as each team's co-drivers went head-to-head. Thommo settled quickly and got into the groove, posting consistent times behind Craig Lowndes and Will Davison.
The Bottle-O Commodore worked its way back up the order into 6th position before Thommo pitted for fuel and fresh tyres. A subsequent stop on lap 86 saw TD slip back behind the wheel, raring to charge all the way to the finish line.
Some tight battles ensured a thrilling contest all the way to the chequered flag with 15th position a pleasing result in the first of this season's enduros.
The car was good today," said D'Alberto as he climbed out of the car, adding, "We resolved a lot of our issues from earlier in the weekend and the improvements worked, plus the car came out of the race with straight panels, so we are all now looking forward to Bathurst."
Last Modified on 16/09/2009 17:24