V8
Supercar Championship Series goes down to the wire
Press Release
The V8 Supercar Championship race will go down to the wire with six drivers still in the hunt after the penultimate round in Tasmania today. Queensland driver Russell Ingall (Caltex Ford) could only manage seventh in the Ferodo Triple Challenge at Symmons Plains. This reduces his championship lead to just 49 points from Craig Lowndes as the pack closes up ahead of the Bigpond Grand Finale at Phillip Island in two weeks.
The Ferodo Triple Challenge proved a Holden benefit with Garth Tander (HSV Dealer Team) winning all three races for the first time in his career to take the honours ahead of Steven Richards (Team Perkins Holden). Tander’s team-mate Rick Kelly was third.
Launceston native Marcos Ambrose drops to third overall and 86 points behind his Stone Brothers Racing team-mate Ingall after a major mishap in the second race this morning.
The Holden Racing Team pair of Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife are fourth and fifth respectively while Richards moves up to sixth and still has a chance of claiming the title at Phillip Island.
It proved a superb weekend for the HSV Dealer team with Tander dominant and team-mate Rick Kelly finishing third. Tander jumped pole-setter Richards in the pits in Saturday’s opening race and won from the gun in both races today to bag his first round win since Bathurst in 2000.
``It’s been a long time between drinks for sure. It’s absolutely awesome to finally get one,’’ Tander said. ``On the last 10 laps I was preying that nothing went wrong.’’
``I couldn’t be happier and I am now really looking forward to Phillip Island.’’
Richards was also pleased with another strong performance from the Team Perkins Holden and is looking forward to Phillip island to hopefully push into the top-five in the championship.
``We’ve had a strong car for the last three rounds but not been able to take full advantage,’’ Richards said.
``The car was strong all weekend. We’re in the hunt although under this format it doesn’t suit a big points deficit but if we can get back to the top four in the championships it will be really good.’’
While there was little between the top cars this weekend, Richards admitted the HSV team were too slick in the pits.
``They had the edge on us in the pits all weekend. It doesn’t need much here but that was the difference.’’
Lowndes enjoyed a solid weekend for the Betta Electrical Ford team with a fifth and two third placings to keep up his strong challenge for the championship in the final round.
Ingall said his Stone Brothers Racing team had a tough weekend.
“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,” Ingall said.
“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. I would rather be 49 points in the lead, than trailing by 49.”
Ambrose, the sentimental favourite in his final race on his home track, saw his best chance of moving up on Ingall disappear when he spun and suffered major tyre issues in race two, limping home in 27th place.
“The brake problems in race two really snatched away any hope we had for the championship,” Ambrose said. “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. Phillip Island will 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.”
The final round of the 2005 V8 Supercar Championship takes place at the BigPond Grand Finale Phillip Island on November 25-27.