News
DOUGLAS ON TOP DESPITE PRACTICE ISSUES
The team later diagnosed the problem to be a broken gearbox oil cooler line that head leaked on the exhaust of the No. 45 Commodore with the issue easily sorted ahead of qualifying and race one tomorrow.
Douglas is on a six-race winning streak in the Kumho Series and leads Tyler Greenbury and Josh Smith in the standings heading into the half-way point of the season.
The pair of young chargers shaded the championship leaders fastest time today Greenburys switch to a later-specification FG Ford Falcon paying dividends as his 1m13.27s lap saw him top practice two this afternoon.
He ended the day 0.1s faster than Smith who already has one pole position to his credit this season.
The pair battled for second and third outright at the series most recent round at Winton in Victoria and will each be looking to be the first to beat Douglas for the first time this year.
Chris Smerdon continued his strong Privateers Cup leading form by finishing fourth outright today though only 0.1s faster than fellow Falcon pilot Jason Heck.
Jim Pollicinas ex-Tasman Commodore was a further 0.1s behind setting up a fight for privateer honours likely to be just as intense as the one for the outright victory.
Steve Briffa rebounded from a trip into the gravel trap to end his day 7th in the poco.com.au Commodore narrowly ahead of Michael Andersons ex-FPR Falcon.
Brendan Strong and Kumho Series rookie Michael Caine completed the top 10 Caine filling in for Pollicina Motorsports regular driver Anthony Loscialpo this weekend.
Queenslander Shane Hunt had a spectacular return to the Kumho Series today though not for the reasons hed like to remember.
The ex-Triple Eight Ford driver had a right front suspension upright fail on the 200km/hr entry to turn one spearing across the gravel trap out of control and making side-on contact with the concrete wall.
The team will work on the Falcon tonight in an effort to return to the circuit tomorrow for qualifying.
A highlight of Fridays action was Supercars Media commentators Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife re-united with their old cars in the Kumho Series paddock.
The two recorded a piece for FOX Sports talking about their heritage of the cars theyd raced in the field Crompton the ex-Glenn Seton Racing EL Falcon he raced at Bathurst in 1998 and Skaife the Holden Racing Team-built VZ in which he equalled Peter Brocks all-time ATCC / Supercars round winning record in 2006.
The piece will air on FOX Sports during their Supercars coverage this weekend with times to be advised.
Saturday will see qualifying (10:20am) and race one (12:55pm) contested ahead of two further races on Sunday as part of the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.
PRACTICE RESULTS:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Pos Car Competitor/Team Driver Vehicle Cap CL Fastest...Lap Gap1 45 SA Racing Logist/THR Developme Taz Douglas (VIC) Commodore VE ll 5000 P1 1:12.8801* 2 13 Image Racing/Lubrimaxx Ima Tyler Greenbury (QLD) Ford Falcon FG 5000 P2 1:13.2719 0:00.39183 14 Brad Jones Racing Joshua Smith (QLD) Commodore VE ll 5000 P1 1:13.3615 0:00.48144 39 Vectra Corp/Lubrimaxx Chris Smerdon (SA) Ford Falcon FG 5000 P1 1:13.9908 0:01.11075 5 Haymans Virginia Jason Heck (QLD) Ford Falcon BF 5000 P1 1:14.1758 0:01.29576 7 MoComm Msports Communications Jim Pollicina (NSW) Commodore VE 5000 P1 1:14.2029 0:01.32287 8 Poco/Simon's Earthworks Steve Briffa (NSW) Commodore VZ 5000 P1 1:14.6527 0:01.77268 11 Kemwood Homes Michael Anderson (NSW) Ford Falcon BF 5000 P1 1:15.0414 0:02.16139 75 Bstrong Electrical/Kirra Auto Brendan Strong (NSW) Commodore VZ 5000 P1 1:15.0735 0:02.193410 37 Tempest Solutions Air & Mechan Michael Caine (NSW) Commodore VE 5000 P2 1:15.2489 0:02.368811 4 Kustom Workz/Supercar Parts & Shane Hunt (QLD) Ford Falcon BF 5000 P2 1:15.3817 0:02.501612 18 Wake Up/Side Bar Warren Millett (NSW) Commodore VZ 5000 P1 1:15.3890 0:02.508913 66 Unichip Dynomotive Jack Sipp (QLD) Commodore VE ll 5000 P1 1:15.6475 0:02.767414 25 Savs Auto Electric/Westco Equi Dean Kovacevich (WA) Commodore VE ii 5000 P1 1:15.7635 0:02.883415 88 Simon's Earthworks/WARLORD Simon Emerzidis (NSW) Commodore VZ 5000 P1 1:16.8537 0:03.973616 111 Custom Garage Andy Cantrell (NSW) Ford Falcon EL 5000 P1 1:18.7546 0:05.8745