Online Magazine

Lowndes Out To Score Hat-Track at Queensland V8s

Staff, Monday July 17, 2006.

Page 1 of 1

After scoring his second-straight win of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Team Betta Electrical's Craig Lowndes returns to his home track in Queensland as a hot favourite.

After breaking through for his first ever round wins at Winton (Victoria) and Darwin, Lowndes returns to a track that he's taken the chequered flag on three occasions, including last year.

Ford has an enviable record at Queensland Raceway, having won the previous five rounds.

One thing that is certain to change is the pole sitter. Two-time V8 Supercar Champion Marcos Ambrose had put his Pirtek Falcon on pole five years in-a-row, but he's now racing in the USA.

Lowndes sits just eight points out of the championship lead

For the first time since 2000, the Queensland event will be a sprint race weekend over both Saturday and Sunday.

"I am looking forward to our home race we had great success at this event last year and it has proven to be a very successful circuit for Ford over the past five years," Lowndes said.

"This year will be considerably different given the three race format and again this is a track where weather will dictate setup more than the track layout."

"We are all looking forward to getting to racing in front of a home crowd and I expect there will be a big turnout of Triple Eight fans."

Lowndes also applauded the recent decision by V8 Supercars Australia to revert back to conventional racing for the final four rounds of the championship.

"I think the correct decision was made regarding the format of our reverse grid races from Indy onwards, this will now allow for a tough, even playing field at the most crucial part of the season," Lowndes said.

Caltex Racing's Russell Ingall believes that a solid test at Queensland Raceway last week could have produced the "edge" his team has been looking for to close the gap on other front-runners in this year's V8 Supercar Championship Series.

The defending V8 Supercar champion currently sits fourth in this year's championship hunt after jumping one position in the last round at Hidden Valley in Darwin.

Ingall did more than 135 laps of Queensland Raceway during the test which finished in the dark.

"We certainly made progress in last week's test," said Ingall.

"In the test prior it rained and we really wasted a day, but I think we managed to make some real progress last week and that should help us be a little more consistent.

"There is no doubt that we still need to find car speed. I guess the consolation is that we are still fourth in the championship, but we know there is still a lot more we can extract from the Caltex Ford."

In the nine sprint and endurance events held at Queensland Raceway since 1999, Ingall has only finished worse than fifth overall once and has never been outside the top 10.

Ironically, Ingall won his first championship round for Ford and Caltex at Queensland Raceway with Stone Brothers Racing in 2003.

His SBR team-mate Marcos Ambrose finished second to give SBR its first 1-2 in V8 Supercar competition.

"There is no doubt that racing on your home test track is always an advantage, but with the calibre of drivers and teams in this championship now it never takes long for the guys from down South to come to grips with it," said Ingall.

"I have never really been a fan of QR, but it has looked after me reasonably well."

There will be qualifying and an opening 32-lap race on Saturday and then a 45-lap reverse grid on Sunday morning. A final 45-lap race will be held in the afternoon with the grid being decided on results from the first two races.

Championship after 5 of 13 rounds

1. Garth Tander : Toll HSV : Holden Commodore 1324 pts
2. Craig Lowndes : Team Betta Electrical : Ford Falcon -8 pts
3. Rick Kelly : Toll HSV : Holden Commodore -13 pts
4. Russell Ingall : Caltex Racing : Ford Falcon -122 pts
5. Mark Winterbottom : Ford Credit FPR : Ford Falcon -133 pts
6. Steven Richards : Jack Daniel's Racing : Holden Commodore -190 pts
7. Mark Skaife : Holden Racing Team : Holden Commodore -216 pts
8. Paul Dumbrell : Jack Daniel's Racing : Holden Commodore -228 pts
9. Jamie Whincup : Team Betta Electrical : Ford Falcon -278 pts
10. Steven Johnson : First Rock Racing : Ford Falcon -323 pts

Subscribe to Fords News feed.

Previous Article: Pirtek Rally Team Weathers Tassie Tussle
Next Article: Ambrose Heads to Graceland

CATEGORIES

Lowndes Out To Score Hat-Track at Queensland V8s

INSTANT SEARCH

LATEST ARTICLES

RECENTLY

ASK COLCAM