Driver quotes from the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Bahrain.
Jamie Whincup, Team Vodafone (1st & 1st): “It’s just a massive, massive effort from our team and one we are immensely proud of. My preparation for each event is simple; I go out to do the best job I can. Some day’s your best isn’t good enough some days it is and the last two weekends our best has been better than anyone else. I am looking forward to the Clipsal 500 in two weeks time. We will go there having already done these last two races which I think will definitely help us prepare for what will be one of the toughest events of the year.”
Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing (2nd & 2nd): “This is a really promising start to the season. Campbell’s (Mark’s engineer - Little) doing a great job and the synergy between us and the car is improving every time we hit the track. Jamie’s having a pretty good run at the moment but we’re not making it easy for him - and don’t plan on doing so for the rest of the season.”
Shane van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing (5th & 3rd): “We have worked pretty hard to be strong at the start of the season, we knew we would be good here but I guess I am surprised with how well the season is going for me so far. Mark [Winterbottom] and Jamie [Whincup] are still one step ahead of me in both car speed and driving to be honest. So I have some work to do and the guys have some work to do in order for us to take the next step up on the podium.”
Craig Lowndes, Team Vodafone (3rd & 12th): “I got caught out again with my qualifying position and then a bad start put me back in the trouble zone where I had to go around everyone at Turn 1 to avoid an incident (in race 1). My car balance was good and the first pitstop was great. I was really starting to pick off a few cars in front. I started to experience a problem with the clutch just before the second pitstop which got worse as the race went on and made down changing gears extremely difficult.”
Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing (9th & 4th): “The Jack Daniel’s Commodore was an absolute dream to drive and with the changes we made we could go a little bit further that way to find a little bit more pace. Again we're a little bit late this weekend finding ourselves but at least we did. For both Abu Dhabi and here, when we come back next year we've got a great set-up and we can come back with confidence. I should mention two guys out there. Shane van Gisbergen has an unbelievable amount of talent and he drove extremely smart. He let me go there when I was quicker and he beat me because of it. Very smart stuff. And it was a bummer that Todd hasn't finished because he's done an awesome job so far this year and he deserves a better result.”
Jason Richards, Team BOC (19th & 8th): “We obviously improved the car massively overnight which was a great job by the engineering group. We had a big rethink on what we were doing and now we’re competitive in that top 5-10 group. I got a good start and boys produced good pit stops and that netted a good result. Our aim is to finish here for the rest of the year, we learnt a lot this week, it’s a low grip surface and we’ve always struggled here. I thought it was a great comeback and now we hope we can be competitive on the other low grip tracks.”
Jason Bargwanna, Rock Racing (15th & 14th): “It’s a great result to be able to come away with what we have from this weekend because we've stayed in the top half of the championship. We did struggle somewhat with the Rock Commodore this weekend. We were out of the set-up window. We took a bit of a punt for that last race and it just didn't pay off and it really hurt the tyres. We were up in the top 10 but we didn't have the tyres under us to maintain it. We've shown good speed and we're going to turn that into even better results soon. We're obviously starting to work well together as a team. We struggled a bit with the set-up this weekend and really that's going to be expected until I can get my head around what the car likes and Stu (Stuart McDonald, Race Engineer - #11 Rock Holden Commodore) and I can get a better understanding of it. I'm expecting that when we get to circuits where we can get the set-up right we are going to be very, very competitive.”
Steven Richards, Ford Performance Racing (DNF & 16th): “It’s been a tough weekend!
“These things (such as the wheel nut and brake issues that saw him retire in race 1) happen probably once every 100 races so you have to take it lightly. The team did everything they could to give me a competitive Dunlop Super Dealer Falcon - and bar the problems - we qualified well and had great race pace which is promising when we come home and race Clipsal in a fortnight.”
Alex Davison, Irwin Racing (18th & 17th): "I thought the IRWIN Racing team got off to a good start in practice, but we then lost our way in car set-up in the races. In the second race I got a great start and made up 10 spots on the opening lap. I was pressuring Rick Kelly for a while, but once the shine went off the tyres I had nothing. My team mate Shane van Gisbergen has had the pace during the Middle Eastern rounds and we will work on getting our car set-up close to his for the next race in Adelaide. We showed excellent qualifying speed in Abu Dhabi and we were not far off the mark here in Bahrain; so that improvement has been a positive. I know that the IRWIN Racing team is capable of qualifying well and running at the front; so setting goals of scoring podium results is not out of the question. It's just so important to put together a complete weekend to get those top results and that will be the goal for the Clipsal 500 in two weeks time."
Tim Slade, Wilson Security Racing (21st & 18th): “The whole trip to the Middle East has been a real learning curve for me. I am looking forward to heading to a track I have raced at before so I can concentrate more on learning about the car rather than having to learn a new circuit at the same time.”
Tony D’Alberto, Centaur Racing (23rd & 19th): “We’ll take the points and four clean finishes. But we have plenty of work ahead of us before we leave for the Clipsal 500 next week. Grip and speed are obviously important in what we do, so improvements will give us better results. Sitting inside the top twenty is a pass, but the whole team wants to get inside that top fifteen and put some pressure on the blokes in front of us. There are a few guys that were knocked around a bit in the Middle East, so they will be very eager to get maximum points in Adelaide. I think you’ll see the pressure rise and the racing go up a cog at Clipsal for sure.”
Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing (20th & DNF): “The cars have been good. My car was probably the worst out of the four (Kelly Racing cars) at Abu Dhabi and this weekend it was probably the best out of the four. It was really good in the race yesterday and would have been an improvement today. We just didn't get to show it. We're chipping away at it. We'll definitely be in contention for the year. For me, I need to qualify better and win races and not focus on the championship too much now because that's pretty much over and out.”
Tony Ricciardello, Super Max Racing (25th & 21st): “In the race I was running with a lot of cars and beat them on pace in the Super-Max Commodore rather than having them just falling off the track so I was really happy with the result,” said Tony Ricciardello. I'm a little bit disappointed with qualifying. We probably didn't get the most out of the tyres and went back a little bit. I have been to a lot of the tracks coming up, but I haven't driven some of them for a while. It will take me a few laps to get into it but these last two meetings have been on brand new, low grip circuits. I've been struggling with power-down and getting used to these cars is a pretty difficult thing. Hopefully when we get back to Australia we can get some good results.”
Watch two-hour highlights from Round 2 in Bahrain on Motors TV (Sky Channel 413, Virgin Media 545) on Sunday 7 March at 3pm (GMT).
Andy Wilkinson
International
