1800 Here, we have some quotes for you – straight from the horses mouth:
Jamie Whincup – Car #1
Practice 3 – First (Fastest Time: 0:50.7396)
Qualifying Race 1 – Second (Fastest Time: 0:50.6897)
Race 1 – First
“I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the qualifying lap that I could’ve today, the car was at its worst when we needed it the most. It’s okay though, it was good enough for the front row which is great. I bogged the start and now that’s two bad starts in a row for me so I’m pretty disappointed by that. We had pure pace, Shane pitted and we bolted so the pace got us out in the lead and we were able to control the race from there. We had our head down and went as hard as we could but, although it might look simple on the outside, there’s just so much going on around a short little track like this. We had plenty of pressure from behind with a lot of guys pitting late, so there was a lot going on although it looked like we were out the front controlling it. It was lucky we didn’t need a safety car at the end because our tyres were pretty much done.“
Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Practice 3 – Second (Fastest Time: 0:50.8112)
Qualifying Race 1 – First (Fastest Time: 0:50.6381)
Race 1 – Sixth
“It was cool to see how the new format worked today; obviously we missed the first part so that was cool to be able to watch the others race around. Then we went out and had two good sessions ourselves – we were up in Q2 and in Q3, we managed to get the fastest lap in which was awesome. The race, not as good for us, it started alright and we had a good lead but we pitted early to keep the lead and that was probably a little aggressive. We were then pushing hard on those first few laps which really hurt the tyre. That just made it a long 45 laps home and we just ran out of tyres. We need to make the setup better and I think we were a little too aggressive – we thought other drivers would run longer than they did and they were quicker at the end and just attacked us then. We probably should’ve been a little bit more conservative.”
1735 Jamie “J-Dub” Whincup takes out P1 in the first race of the weekend! SVG falls behind in P6. In an nutshell, SVG held his pole position, J-Dub P2 and team mate Lowndesy went up in front of Scotty to secure P3. From there, SVG made his pit stop really early, came out in line with Scotty, pulled away. J-Dub pits then holds the lead as SVG slowly loses tyre power as drivers start to pit later in the game and start overtaking.
1645 Race 1 for the weekend is underway, we’ve got 120kms ahead of us in the cold Tassie climate.
1515 Our final autograph session is complete, great to see all the punters out enjoying the beautiful weather on top of the hill.
1335 SVG has taken pole position for our first race today and J-Dub not far behind win P2. Our mate Lowndesy is in P4, how good! SVG always has time for the fans, especially the little ones…
1320 Qualifying Part 2 complete and we have progressed through to the final stage… This next part matters.
1255 The new qualifying series begins, we’re sitting out Part 1 so SVG takes the opportunity to sit back and watch.
1105 Practice 3 coming right up! Today’s practice isn’t as important as yesterdays – although valuable opportunity to get the car 100% ready for Qualifying.
0930 We had our first Super Track Walk of the season for all of our super fans – perfect opportunity for everyone to check out the cars and say hello to the drivers all in one spot.
0700 We have quite a large day today. After meeting all our fans on the grid first thing, we head to Practice before the all-important Qualifying series. Race 1 isn’t until later this arvo so we’re positive the drivers and crew will be going through a few Red Bulls.
