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Other Racing Forums => World Racing => V8 Supercars => Topic started by: CanadianRacingOnline on October 05, 2018, 10:20:19 PM

Title: Ford dominates opening day of practice at Bathurst 1000
Post by: CanadianRacingOnline on October 05, 2018, 10:20:19 PM
Ford dominates opening day of practice at Bathurst 1000

Ford drivers have dominated the opening three practice session at a wet Mount Panorama to kickstart this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Two-time Bathurst Champion Will Davison clocked the quickest lap time of the day in the opening session before Frenchman Alex Premat, the co-driver of Scott McLaughlin was quickest in P2 and Tickford’s kiwi rookie Richie Stanaway was quickest in P3 this afternoon.

“It’s really hard to learn much when it’s greasy like that,” Davison said.

“You make a few changes to the car and can’t learn too much, other than tyre pressures.

“We read the conditions, made changes, there was not too much risk.”

“We basically left it as a dry car, almost, and just tried to learn as much as we could,” McLaughlin said.

“It felt comfortable, very predictable, which is nice, but we’re probably not pushing the limit just yet.”

All three practice sessions were affected by rain, with many drivers including defending Bathurst Champion, David Reynolds, electing to avoid the wet weather and any risk on the opening day of the event.

 

Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup also elected to spend minimal time on the track.

“We have got a program to run so we will get out there in the dry tomorrow to pick up the rest of it,” Whincup said.

“We worked bloody hard on our program so we want to stick to it and see how it works this weekend.”

Current Virgin Australia Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen was the quickest of the Holden drivers today, while the Nissan’s of Andre Heimgartner/Aaren Russell and Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore were also quick in the wet.

Drivers will now prepare for tomorrow’s final practice and ARMOR ALL Qualifying, which will determine just who makes it into this year’s ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout.

There were no major dramas as drivers took extra care in the wet. Craig Lowndes, in his final Bathurst event as a Championship driver, skidded off the track at the bottom of The Chase in the final practice session of the day.

His Commodore wasn’t damaged and he will be looking for an improved result tomorrow as he chases his seventh victory at Mount Panorama.

It's an early start on track tomorrow, with practice four beginning at 8:30am AEST. The final practice session begins at 11:15am before ARMOR ALL Qualifying gets underway at 3:50pm.

FOLLOWING TODAY'S PRACTICE: SUPERCHEAP AUTO BATHURST 1000



  P1 – Will Davison/Alex Davison
  P2 – Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat
  P3 – Richie Stanaway/Steve Owen   1st – Shane van Gisbergen (3054 points)
  2nd – Scott McLaughlin (2999 points)
  3rd – Jamie Whincup (2716 points)

Click here for full results and current championship standings.

This year’s event marks 50 years since Holden’s first win at Mount Panorama, while fans will also can “Farewell the Falcon” with Ford announcing the Mustang will return to the grid from 2019, while there will be three new inductees to Supercars Legend’s Lane.

Fox Sports 506 has a dedicated, 24/7 Bathurst channel for race week.

Supercars and Foxtel will broadcast the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in 4K, making the sport the first in Australia to be televised in the highest possible resolution available in the country.

Foxtel will deliver 48-and-a-half hours and 22 hours of live coverage respectively - produced by a crew of 350 - along with feeds for international broadcasters, Bathurst’s big screens and the Superview streaming service.

TEN will deliver over 21 hours of LIVE coverage on TEN and TEN HD from Friday to Sunday.

The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is the second event in this year's Pirtek Enduro Cup Series. Tickets are still available through Ticketek.

For more information please contact Supercars Media.