The Red Bull Racing Australia boys have made a storming start to the 2014 V8 Supercars season in today’s two qualifying sessions, taking a pole position each for tomorrow’s two 150km races at the Clipsal 500.
The front row will be locked out by two charging bulls for race one, with J-Dub clinching the first pole of the year.
“It’s a perfect start with my new engineer Cauchi but of course it’s still going to take a few months to iron out the wrinkles,” he said.
“We were pushing hard and the track changed quite a bit from practice to qualifying and is a little bumpier than last year. My car was bucking me around the track most of the time, in saying that it’s still extremely quick which is the main thing.”
After hitting a tyre bundle in the early stages of the second qualifying session, the steering on the No. 1 Holden Commodore was slightly askew, but nothing that affected his speed as he finished in third, putting him on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s second twilight race.
“I’ll put it down to luck in the first qualifying session and the second session was more of a true indication of our speed, so a bit of work to do tonight to get the set up just right,” Jamie concluded.
Lowndesy completed the Red Bull pole position lockout by not only claiming the top spot for the second race, but also the qualifying lap record at the same time with a 1.20.415 lap.
“I got the lap record? I didn’t even know!” he laughed.
“To start second in the first race and first in the second – it’s a pretty good start to the season. We worked hard over the last three practice sessions to get the car just right and our set up worked well with the rising temperatures.”
Meanwhile, newcomers Volvo surprised the pack with Scott McLaughlin putting his new car next to Lowndesy on the grid for race two, starting second.
“It’s a new era for V8 Supercars, you can see that from Volvo’s result today. That’s the beauty of Car of the Future, it brings in new manufacturers which is not only good for the sport but to see them have a real crack at the podium makes things exciting.”
Check the telecast times for tomorrow’s two 150km twilight races on the streets of Adelaide here.
