30 Jul TOP SIXES IN IPSWICH
Craig Lowndes took his TeamVortex Commodore to two top six finishes in the latest weekend of Virgin Australia Supercar Championship racing, at Queensland Raceway.
After qualifying second fastest on Saturday, Craig finished fifth and then followed that up with a sixth placed finish on Sunday.
“I think we’ve proved this weekend that hopefully we’ve turned a corner. I’m really happy. It was another strong showing, it really does show we’re making some inroads,” Craig Lowndes said.
FRIDAY
- Steve Richards does co-driver session
- Craig 19th fastest in Practice 1
- Craig 7th fastest in Practice 2
“It was a great opportunity to get Steve (Richards) in the car (today). He was really pleased with the car, he commented that it was very easy to drive. We tried a couple of changes with him, which was good. He only had half an hour, but felt comfortable in the car, so that’s really positive. In my first session, we did a race run just to see how long the tyre life would be and we’ve got a good indication now going forward with that. In the second practice session we aimed to just get maximum speed. We had a run right at the end on a green tyre, like most of the others did. We didn’t maximise the lap, but definitely got a good direction going forward. I’m happy to be seventh and obviously qualifying is where we’re focusing all our efforts now.”
SATURDAY
- Craig 14th in Practice 3
- Craig qualifies 2nd for Race 15
- Craig finishes 5th in Race 15
“I didn’t do anything different from what I’ve been doing all year but it was really good to turn qualifying around. We were hoping for a lot here this weekend, being our test track, but you never know. It’s really tight in the competition. We’ve been struggling all year to turn the tyre on and we were able to do it here, so that was fantastic.
“I had a great start! There’s no doubt that Scotty (McLaughlin) was going to be the guy to beat today, he obviously had a very fast car. We went with a really aggressive strategy, trying to force the others to pit early chasing us, but they didn’t and we ran out of tyre life at the end of the race. We’re very pleased with the progress that the team’s made and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
SUNDAY
- Craig qualifies 7th for Race 16
- Craig finishes 6th in Race 16
“We had another good, strong qualifying. We got caught up in traffic a little bit towards the end of the second run, but it probably would have only put us up another spot or two maybe. We’re definitely making inroads on that side of it.
“We got a good start, the car was good, strategy was good. After the safety car, the car just struggled with the tyres, they just wouldn’t switch back on. Anyway, that’s the way it is. When I was following Fabian (Coulthard) I took a tighter line and caught a big bundle of rubber and it understeered me off the track. That’s just the way that this supersoft tyre works, it basically leaves a lot of rubber debris around the outside (of the track) so if you run wide you’re going to be in trouble for a lap or two. We dropped off a little bit, but it was still a strong showing for us.”