Ford
consolidates top three in Championship
Press Release
Fourth place overall to Craig Lowndes (Team Betta Electrical) at the Ferodo Triple Challenge, at Tasmania's Symmons Plains has seen him move to second place in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Lowndes is now 49-points behind Russell Ingall (Caltex Racing) who finished seventh for the round.
Defending two-time Series champion Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) finished 12th for the weekend, after brake problems in the second of three races sent his car spinning off the track and damaged two tyres. Ambrose is now 86-points from the championship lead.
The round was won by Garth Tander ahead of Steven Richards and Rick Kelly.
Lowndes gained 32-points on Ingall and is in with a fighting chance for the title.
"We would have liked a better round result, but in terms of the championship we are very pleased," said Lowndes.
"I was happy with the car, it was just that Garth, Steven and Rick had something a bit better.
"We're looking forward to Phillip Island. I won the round last time the series raced there in 2003. I know the circuit very well after many years of racing as well as testing.
"Russell still has a solid gap in the championship. However, there are another three individual races at Phillip Island and like this weekend showed anything can happen.
"We'll go there looking for victory, if we can put ourselves in sight of the championship that would be great.
"For Ford it's pretty much a done deal for a Blue Oval driver taking the title. It's going to be a great finale to the season."
Although he was happy with the handling of his Falcon, Ingall had ongoing brake problems. The result was still enough to have him more than confident going into the final round.
"We really battled all weekend, but at the end of the day we came away with a straight car and still a reasonable points lead," said Ingall.
"We don't really need to stress ourselves too much about the final round, but we certainly need to ensure we have a decent game plan heading into Phillip Island.
"We had brake issues on both cars this weekend and we need to go back to the drawing board in that area.
"We always knew Craig (Lowndes) would finish the season strongly, but we need to concentrate on what we are doing and not what they are doing up the road.
"A lot of people have put an enormous amount of work into this championship campaign and the title is there for us to win.
"I would rather be 49 points in the lead, than trailing by 49."
After finishing 27th in the second race, Ambrose put in a storming drive in the final race of the weekend to finish sixth. That performance showed the he will fight all the way in the championship.
"The brake problems in race two really snatched away any hope we had for the championship," said Ambrose.
"I guess the drive in race three proved that we still have what it takes.
"The gap to Craig (Lowndes) in the championship is a reasonable one, but we saw today that anything can happen.
"We just need to go to Phillip Island and give it everything we have and try and give SBR another 1-2.
"It will also be my last V8 Supercar race before I head to the US next year, so I intend to make sure that I really enjoy myself.
"We still have a job to do."
A solid round for Steven Johnson (Westpoint Racing) earned him sixth overall for the weekend and he's now just 29 points from 10th position in the championship.
The final race of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship Series, the BigPond Grand Finale, will be at Victoria's Phillip Island on 26-27 of November.