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Team
Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup boldly declared “everybody bleeds” in
claiming that the current domination of the Toll HSV Dealer team was no
guarantee that he or another contender would be denied the 2007 V8
Supercar Championship Series title.
Whincup
clawed back some ground on runaway leaders Rick Kelly and Garth Tander
in the Championship after winning the fourth round at Winton Raceway
today by just one point from Tander.
He
then reiterated that his Holden rivals were not invincible despite Kelly
holding a 56 point lead in the Championship and Tander being just one
point behind his team-mate.
“No-one’s
unbeatable, everybody bleeds,” said Whincup.
“We
will race these guys and the rest of the field for the next 10 rounds.
We are making a massive step up. We are miles ahead of where we were
last year. We just didn’t have the pace early but we are improving on
that. The results hopefully should start to come.”
Whincup
snuck up on the field after qualifying 20th yesterday. He was perfectly
suited to the rain yesterday and set up his win from there.
“You
are dead right; we had a very slow start to the weekend. Then the rain
came down and we were very, very quick in the wet. We made some massive
changes to the car from qualifying which we took a gamble with.
“That
car has won a few rounds last year and Bathurst for us. It’s got about
10 (winning) emblems on the side of it which Craig has almost all of
them but now I can put one on there.”
Tander
could well have taken the victory had he not suffered from being spun
around by Todd Kelly in the first race. Tander confronted Kelly about it
after the race.
“He
probably won’t do it again but we are still mates,” Tander said of
their ‘conversation’.
“It
was race one where we got turned around early in the race that cost me.
Fourth in that one was a great fightback as we also had to pit behind
Rick. As it turns out it wasn’t quite enough points but we are looking
forward to the next few rounds.”
Garry
Rogers Motorsport’s Lee Holdsworth was released from hospital after
precautionary scans after rear-ending a concrete barrier after leaving
the track.
He
suffered whiplash and was transported to Wangarratta Hospital
for mandatory scans. He was cleared of any injury and left for home just
a few hours after the accident.
“It
was a big crash in difficult conditions,” V8 Supercars Australia CEO
Wayne Cattach said.
“These
cars are extremely well engineered and it is testimony to this
engineering that Lee has been able to come away from this with no
injuries. We are very relieved that Lee has no injuries.”
Holdsworth
was accompanied to hospital by his parents Glen and Diana, brother Brett
and partner Alana.
Rick
Kelly leads the Championship on 224 points from Tander (223), Whincup
(168), Todd Kelly (153) and James Courtney (112).
The
next round is at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney from June 9-11.
MOFFAT
RIDES FORMULA FORD ROLLER COASTER
James
Moffat rode a roller coaster of form at Winton Raceway last weekend
competing in round three of the Australian Formula Ford Championship.
After
topping the time sheets during early practice, Moffat had a
disappointing qualifying session, forced to start Race 1 from 11th grid
position well behind championship rivals Tim Blanchard, Kristian Lindbom,
Glen Wood and Ashley Walsh.
RACE
1
Driving
with controlled force Moffat made up six places during the nine lap race
finishing 5th but had to relinquish the championship lead to eventual
race winner and Sonic Motorsport team mate Tim Blanchard. 2nd was Nick
Percat followed by Glen Wood and Kristian Lindbom. The only top 4
Championship contenders not to score more points than Moffat was CAMS
Rising Star Ashley Walsh who recorded a DNF. Suddenly the Championship
ladder was looking very congested.
RACE
2
As
the drivers lined up for the second 9 lap race, rain began to fall
making conditions Treacherous. Once again Moffat chose to drive smart,
thinking of the championship rather than race wins. Holding onto 5th
position from the start, James inherited one position when race leader
Nick Percat slipped off the circuit rejoining 8th and out of contention.
Moffat capitalised on the confusion caused by following drivers trying
to avoid the melee sneaking inside his Sonic Motorsport team mate Glen
Wood into third place. The three team Sonic cars Blanchard 1st, Moffat
3rd and Glen Wood 4th filled the top four places with CAMS Rising Star
Kristian Lindbom, 2nd, spoiling the party. By lap 5 the track was
completely awash and Moffat was looking for a way past Lindbom into
second. The two almost collided but Moffat avoided contact and slipped
up the inside and into 2nd position positioning. Team mate and race
leader Tim Blanchard was now firmly in his sites. James put his head
down and appeared to be making inroads on Blanchard when race officials
decided to declare the race two laps early.
The
result put Moffat on the front row for Sunday’s final race and would
have needed to put cars between he and Blanchard to have any chance of
regaining the series lead.
Race
3,
Unfortunately
Moffat’s Race weekend was over as soon as the starter’s lights for
race three flashed green.
Moffat
missed the start leaving the hard charger from race two, Taz Douglas
know where to go cannoning straight into the back of Moffat’s Mygale,
effectively ending both their races on the spot.
Moffat’s
team mate and championship rival, Tim Blanchard, started from pole and
missed all the commotion, leading from start to finish in his Jaylec
Mygale opening up a sizeable gap after holding off early challenges from
Nick Percat and CAMS Rising Star Kristian Lindbom who finished second
and third for race three and the round respectively.
“Obviously
there was some trouble off the line on the grid, so I was fortunate to
be on pole and stay out of the way,” explained Blanchard.
The
next round of the Australian Formula Ford Championship will once again
support the V8 Supercars and V8 Development Series at Sydney’s Eastern
Creek Raceway June 9 –
11.
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