Practice A had the bottom 15 cars of the championship points from 2008 out on the track for a 35 minute practice session. Tony quickly found a feel for the car and the track with the team setting to work making changes in order to improve the car.
'Turn ten has a huge bump mid turn which caught me off guard. I came in to pit to check we hadn't damaged anything and then pressed on'.
Finishing in the late teens bought more changes in the lead up to practice B.
Practice B was a 50 minute whole field session. Tony consistantly pumped out good times to keep his position in the late teens. Changes in tyre pressure, roll centre and height adjustments saw #55 continuously improving, and setting a time of 1.14.3937, to put the Bottle - O Commodore up into 10th position at the end of Practice B.
'We are continuously making changes to the car which are steadily improving our pace. I was happy with our performance in practice B, but we will keep making changes to get more out of the car. We had used rubber on the car and set a great lap at the end of the session so there is alot more to come'.
Practice C was again a 50 minute session which bought the results the Bottle - O Commodore team were looking for. The consistency along with the adjustments still being made to the car, saw Tony set a 1.13.7680 on lap 42, and up into 3rd position with 20 minutes left on the clock, and only .04 off the fastest lap. Knowing they had found the right set up, a new set of tyres were thrown on and the green machine got to work and set the fastest time of a 1.13.3002 on lap 47. Reaching the maximum 50 laps that can be done in a practice session, #55 was put in the garage and ended the practice sessions in 5th place.
'I am very happy with our efforts today, but tomorrow and Sunday are the days that count the most. Townsville is a very demanding track. It is good on tyres but hard on the brakes. I like the track and think we have found the right set up for the races, but we have to wait and see.'
Qualifying for race one begins mid morning tomorrow before race one burns up the tarmac mid afternoon. Make sure to watch as the green machine pushes hard to keep up the momentum of practice.
Last Modified on 10/07/2009 21:01