Driver quotes following the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide which brought a double-victory for Toll Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander.
Garth Tander (Toll Holden Racing Team, 1st & 1st): “We still need to have a few results like we did this weekend to fight back (in the championship). It was important for us to have the results we did this weekend. We’ll go to Hamilton and try to do what we have done this weekend. The only way to get back into the championship is to win races and that’s our goal in the short term. We don’t expect to be back in the hunt until the endurance races.”
Mark Winterbottom (Ford Performance Racing, 21st & 3rd): “I think I owe the boys a few beers tonight because the car was great but the driver made a few errors. That really was ‘the one that got away’. The boys really delivered a car today that could win. “I went too hard into turn eight (in race 2) and as a result I didn’t have the ‘go’ left to have a crack at Tander towards the end. Prior to that our pace was great, we still have a few gremlins to iron out but I think the car is where it needs to be to win races. It was a great race though, especially when the rain came. People were diving down the inside, outside, going sideways - bits were flying off cars. It was one for young and old so I’m sure the spectators an viewers at home would have got their money’s worth.”
Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone, 4th & 18th): “I really don’t know what to say to be honest. It’s extremely painful to come away from this weekend with no real result after all the hard work we put in. For the 20 of us to go through two hours of torture and to get so close, but to have it all taken away by something completely out of our control is very difficult to accept. To finish in that fashion is something I will remember for a long time, but I have no choice other than to use this as a motivation to work harder and achieve the results we have worked so hard for.”
Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Racing, 22nd & 4th): “We were a bit up and down throughout the race (two) in positions, the strategy we were running we needed a safety car in order to make it with fuel so when the track began to break up at turn 8 that definitely helped us and allowed us to race to end. Under safety car I was told to conserve as much fuel as possible which is what I did. When the race restarted I was trying to go fast but use less fuel so I was backing off a bit earlier than I normally would. Under safety car I was in sixth gear (2,000 revs) doing 40kms just trying to save fuel. At the end there I really pushed hard, it started to rain a bit which made it interesting and I had a little bit of pace over the guys in front, but Winterbottom got away from me when it started to dry out so I couldn’t quite catch him. Fourth is a great comeback from yesterday, I wanted to get a podium for the guys but we didn’t quite get there, we are really happy with the points haul.”
Rick Kelly (Jack Daniel’s Racing, DNF & 6th): “It was by far the toughest Clipsal 500 I've ever been in as far as the pace that everyone was doing. You've seen the winner in the past miss corners, have spins, change batteries and all sorts of stuff. This weekend was just more intense and that's the way it's going to be all year so we need to keeping move forward as a team and improving our Jack Daniel’s Commodores.”
Tony D’Alberto (Centaur Racing, 14th & 7th): "This has been a huge weekend for the Centaur Racing Team. Thanks to all of our sponsors and fans, your support means everything to us and we are happy to put on a performance like this weekend for you. “I'm just wrapped. Well done to the crew. Awesome job guys.”
Jason Richards (Team BOC, DNF & 7th): “Pretty disappointed to day to be honest, we had a fast car in qualifying and qualified 11th. I got a good start and had good pace but the safety car at the end stuffed us. We were a top 5 car on speed today, so to end up 9th was disappointing. We deserved better. We raced hard today, there was no mistakes and we just got caught out by that safety car.”
Will Davison (Toll Holden Racing Team, 9th & 14th): “I’m really looking forward to running in Melbourne at the Grand Prix in two weeks, for me it’s probably a good time for a non-championship race to go and try some things to see what happened this weekend. We worked very hard here, but we got very little reward. I’m a little confused with the weekend; we qualified seventh with a reasonable time, but I still had a feeling that over a race distance it wasn’t going to be great. I could pull a single lap time out of the car, but it was too difficult to drive fast all the time. For whatever reason I just wasn’t comfortable, so it wasn’t an enjoyable race for me.”
Alex Davison (Irwin Racing, 11th & 23rd): "We struggled with the handling all weekend in the IRWIN Racing Ford and in two long races it took its toll. In the Saturday race we were able to use good strategy to get ourselves towards the top-10. However, with the second race running so long with just one safety car period, we had to really battle out there. We have showed that we can be on the pace, but we just have not had the IRWIN Falcon in the performance window since that first weekend in Abu Dhabi. We will have another good look at things heading into the non-championship weekend at the Grand Prix in Melbourne and then aim to get back towards the front at the V8 Series round in NZ."
Todd Kelly (Jack Daniel’s Racing, 13th & 12th): “We certainly wanted to be closer to the front but it does get the points looking a little bit better. We worked on some new developments on my Jack Daniel’s Commodore this weekend and we learned a hell of a lot to take into the Grand Prix. There is promise there but overall we would have liked to be further up there. We achieved a bit technically but the results are not where we need to be. The potential is there so we will continue to work hard.”
Dean Fiore (Triple F Racing, 16th & 22nd): “I am happy with the way the weekend finished in terms of car speed, and we are getting down to where we need to be. Saturday’s result was a great one for the team, my sponsors and my supporters but I am just shattered about Sunday’s result and the last minute call from Jim Beam Racing, as we had much better car speed on Sunday and I feel we were robbed of another solid result.”
Tim Slade (Wilson Security Racing, DNF & 17th): “I am happy I finished one! It’s good to get that off my back. It was an interesting race, there was only one DNF so it was very different to yesterday’s. I lost a couple of positions when Lowdnes hit me and turned me around. He readdressed that but it didn’t really serve its purpose that good because I still lost two or three positions out of it. When it started to rain I played it on the cautious side, I didn’t want to be the first one in the wall so I got hung out to dry there a bit and lost a couple of spots. We had good car speed especially in the middle stint, we just made it home with fuel like Shane [van Gisbergen] so the guys did a great job with the strategy.”
Tony Ricciardello (Super Max Racing, 20th & 21st): “We had really good pace in the second race. Unfortunately I glanced the wall under brakes into the hairpin at the end of Brabham Straight. I just touched the white line and I got off the brakes but it's just so slippery on those white lines that it locked the left front and I lost a bit of time. From there we kept our nose clean and concentrated on improving the car and running a steady race. We improved our lap times and I'm really happy with the development and improvement of the Super-Max Commodore. The crew guys are just fantastic, they're helping me a lot and as a team we are all working well together. One of the important things you need to keep on top of as a driver is your fitness and I'm pleased with how I've gone physically in the first part of the year. I've survived these two races here, which are close to the toughest of the year, so it's all about improvement and taking these little steps forward to get quicker and quicker.”
Jason Bargwanna (Rock Racing, DNF & 24th): “We didn't reach any of our goals heading into this weekend. We got caught up in other people’s accidents and we really struggled with the Rock Commodore today. When we pitted we went a lap down and that was the end of it. Obviously, once you are a lap down then it's extremely difficult. We also got a pit lane drive through for speeding at one of our stops so it wasn't a great day for the Rock Commodore. We will press on and see what we can learn from the races at the Grand Prix, then look to get back toward the top 10 in points over in New Zealand.”
Watch 2-hour Clipsal 500 highlights on Motors TV (Sky Channel 413, Virgin Media 545) on Sunday 21 March at 5.20pm (GMT).
Andy Wilkinson
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