8:00pm – The team will be working hard this evening to prep the cars ready for another big day. Qualifying, shootout and 200km – it’s going to be good!
6:30pm – Not a bad day, highs and lows for the team but hear it from the boys themselves. Let’s kick of with JDub who claimed p2:
“Overall it’s the same story but you’ve got to be happy with a podium but just couldn’t crack it for the win. We had a good start and gave ourselves every opportunity to win that race but at the end of the day it’s all about car pace and we just didn’t have enough car pace and the quickest car won on the day. We won’t get disheartened though, we’ll keep doing our thing. I feel like we’ve somewhat clawed away a little bit, we’ve bridged the gap slightly, we’ve still got a long way to go though. We’ll keep the effort up and won’t give up, we’ll get there hopefully, eventually.”
Unfortunately it just wasn’t Shane’s day, but he’ll be back tomorrow to do it all again:
“Our car was quite good, it’s been nice all weekend. Shippy (Grant McPherson, Race Engineer) and I have worked together well and we’ve got a pretty good car, but we just didn’t quite maximise it in qualifying, but knew we’d have a good race car from what we learnt in our race run. In the race I got a shitty start again. I don’t know why, I don’t what’s going on there, it’s just my biggest struggle. Then I got going good and the gap sort of stayed the same to the leader. If we’d started good, we would have been okay. And then the header broke at the end. I got it to the finish, but slowly. I could sort of manage it at the start and it would actually run okay, but then it got really bad and we were using more fuel, so I had to save a lot fuel while being really slow down the straights. I tried to keep people behind, but there was really no chance. I ended up seventh, which is still okay for a bad day.”
5:50pm – The first 200km is done and run. JW brought home some silverware and champagne. SVG was on for a good finish until he had to nurse an injured bull home with a broken header.
3:20pm – The final prep is underway… Just under and hour to go. The boys will be charging for 70 laps (200km) this afternoon.
2:00pm – It’s always a laugh visiting our corporate guests. They’ve got it all in the suite – food, Red Bull flowing, on track racing….. can we join!? #bestseatsinthehouse
12:50pm – The grid is set for this afternoon’s race – JW on the front row in P2, SVG not far behind in P5… We’re on for a good race!
11:30pm – No messing about today with any practice session, we’ll be heading straight into qualifying in an hour’s time. The team’s fueling up with lunch and of course a Red Bull 😉
11:00am – FAST FACT – Triple Eight has more race wins in Townsville than any other team – 9 wins out of the 17 races held.
9:50am – Great to see so many faces this morning at the autograph session. Don’t forget to head over to the RBHRT Official Store and grab yourself some goodies!
8:10am – What does SVG reckon about the championship fight at this midway mark? “Right now it is team first,’’ he said to the Daily Telegraph. “All three cars are working as hard as possible to be quicker than those other two (Penske) cars. We need our car to be better than theirs and more consistent and then you push for your personal gain later.”
7:40am – Getting the blood pumping before a good breakfast.
7:00am – Good morning folks! Big day ahead – plenty of action on and off track today. We’re kicking off with some pit stop practice.
