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Ford Territory

SPECIAL

Ford Territory

Ford Retains Top Two Spots in V8 Championship after Wild Round in NZ

Staff, Monday April 18, 2005.

Page 1 of 1

Caltex Racing?s Russell Ingall has jumped to second overall in the V8 Supercar Championship Series after finishing runner-up at the PlaceMakers V8 International at Pukekohe Park Raceway south of Auckland.

Ingall?s Stone Brothers Racing teammate and defending two-time V8 Supercar Champion Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) extended his lead in this year?s title chase from 9 to 42 points after finishing third overall.

New Zealand hero Greg Murphy scored his fourth overall win in five years at Pukekohe.

Ingall finished each of the three races in second place to Murphy, including a wet finish to race #3, to vault from sixth to second in the championship chase.

?The way we performed this weekend confirms that we are getting a total package together and we can start really focussing our attention on the Championship,? said Ingall.

?We cycled through our tyres conservatively during the first two races and were looking pretty good until the rain came down.

?But despite some patchy form in the rain of late we were able to still put out some quick times in the wet.

?This is the best result ever for the Caltex Racing team in New Zealand and overall the best for SBR so it?s been a great weekend.

?To move from sixth into second and just 42 points behind Marcos gives us a lot to look forward to when we travel to Perth for the next round.?

In contrast, Ambrose?s weekend was far from ideal. Despite qualifying second to Team Betta Electrical?s Craig Lowndes, the Devil Racer got caught-up in a succession of incidents over the three races.

Ambrose and Lowndes touched not long after the start of race#1 with Lowndes spinning off the track. Eight laps later Ambrose and Steven Richards came together. Ambrose scrambled home in fifth place.

In race #2 he finished third before another dramatic final race of the weekend. Fighting for position from the start, Ambrose and Lowndes again touched with Ambrose spearing off into the grass.

Eight laps later two other cars were off the track from separate incidents, most teams came to the pits for their compulsory stops in anticipation of a safety car being called onto the track. Ambrose was forced to wait behind Ingall in the pitlane. He re-joined in eighth position.

The race was to take a final dramatic twist when drizzle began to fall and cars were struggling for grip on slick tyres. Craig Baird (WPS Racing) was forced to avoid the out of control Jamie Whincup, but was hit in the side by Paul Dumbrell with both cars slamming at high-speed into the barriers.

Officials immediately stopped the race with Baird and Dumbrell climbing from their cars with no major injury.

A 30-minute delay to repair the trackside barriers followed and all but Brad Jones (Team BOC) and Greg Ritter (Ford Credit / FPV Ford Performance Racing) changed to wet weather tyres for the final 16-lap sprint.

In another cruel twist to Lowndes? weekend his car failed to re-fire and he was pushed to the side. Ironically the same electrical glitch affected teammate Steve Ellery, although he was push-started.

Through all this Ambrose went from eighth to fourth by the end of the race. In near darkness the weekend finally concluded with the Pirtek driver delighted to walk away with the third placed trophy and an increase in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

?I?m totally stoked with the result and would count this among one of the toughest racing weekends I?ve encountered for some time,? said Ambrose.

?To be here on the podium today gives an indication of the never-say-die attitude of the Pirtek Racing team.

?I didn?t really get a handle on the car during race three and was just battling away trying to maintain a position in the top 10.

?But then the rain came and we were able to push hard and make some gains.

?The overall result definitely augers well for the future.?

Ford finished with five cars in the top-10, with Jason Bright (CAT Ford Performance Racing) finishing in sixth, John Bowe (Team BOC) in seventh and despite his dramas in the final race of the weekend, Ellery was placed ninth. The highlight for Ellery was in race#1 when he finished fourth.

Bowe?s weekend finished a lot better than it started after all his racing equipment was stolen from his car on Wednesday evening. His helmet, race suit, HANS device and cool suit were found late Friday on the side of a road in West Auckland. It was a relieved John Bowe who took to the track on Saturday, with his equipment back and the opportunity to celebrate his 51st birthday!

Despite a tough weekend result, Craig Lowndes did end one long drought with his first pole position in 35 rounds (Canberra 2002).

Teams now head back across the Tasman and then across the country to Barbagallo Raceway outside Perth from 6-8 May.

Top-10 Overall Placemakers V8 International Pukekohe Park Raceway (NZ)

Top-10 Championship After 2 Of 13 Rounds

For Further information contact:
Ben Beazley
Media Coordinator
Ford Racing Australia
Phone: 03 9359 8190
Mobile: 0417 262 753
Email: benb@global-marketing.com

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