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Co-Drivers' Quoteboard: Qualifying

14 Sep 2013
The co-drivers took the stage earlier today, contesting the first 20-lap qualifying race of the day. Here's what some of them had to say.
9 mins by James Pavey
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Steve Owen, Pepsi Max FPR #6, p2: 

“It was great to be part of today and it’s nice to be on pole in my first outing with the team. I’ve been comfortable driving with Will (Davison) from the start as we want the same things from the car. Today the changes I wanted made happened and Will just drove off and we all saw what he did. I was happy to finish second in the first race and give Will the clean side of the track to start from. If we can stay out front tomorrow and keep in clear air away from all the carnage we are in with a good chance.”

Dale Wood, Wilson Security DJR #12, p3: 

“It’s bloody good. It was a tough drive and Nick (Percat) kept me really honest. I could square my car up and get off the corner and he was strong under brakes and into the corner, so I eliminated that by being able to get out of the corner well. 

“The pace we didn’t have compared to the others in that race was down to me, there’s still some areas of the track that I’ve got to work on but I think that was a good race for us and especially for me – it instilled some confidence into me and I’d like to think we can do a good job. 

“I love every minute of working with Chaz (Mostert) and he’s an immense talent. He’s pretty inexperienced but his feedback and his pace is unbelievable.”

Nick Percat, Holden Racing Team, #2 p4:

“It’s been a pretty interesting day. I was caught up behind Dale Wood in my qualifying race but managed to finish where I started.

“I think the car is good and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do over the longer distance.”

Dean Canto, The Bottle-O Racing #55, p6:

“It was a productive day but the field is very evenly matched. We didn’t get the best run in qualifying but we still managed seventh and then in the two races we kept our noses clean and stayed out of trouble. Dave (Reynolds) probably would’ve finished at least two places higher if he didn’t get baulked off the start. Tomorrow is a long day and we have a car that looks after its tyres which not everyone seems to have so we are looking forward to tomorrow.”

Steve Richards, Pepsi Max FPR #5, p7:

“We somehow tuned the car the wrong way for Frosty ahead of qualifying so we went back to basics and started again. The first race was great and while I never had a clear lap to see where the pace of the car really was, it felt really good and it was quite easy to put the car into a position to make a pass. We are back on track so we are looking okay.”

Jack Perkins, Fujitsu Racing GRM #33, p8:

“We know our grid position for the race tomorrow and it’s ninth. We were probably a little disappointed because Scotty (McLaughlin) did a tremendous job and qualified the car in third. We’ve been in the top three or four all weekend but unfortunately I had a lousy start and dropped back to eighth.

“I’m pretty confident for tomorrow because the car is a lot faster than that. I’ve got a little bit of work to do to make sure my start is good for tomorrow and I’m very much looking forward to that.

“We’ve been confident all weekend, the car has been excellent and we deserve to be in the top four or five definitely, so we’ll work hard tonight. Hats off to the team, they gave us the best car and I feel like I let them down a bit. 

“No trophies today so we’ll see how we go tomorrow.”

Andrew Thompson, Heavy Haulage Australia #47, p11:

“Today was just my second race start for the year, I didn’t feel it was too bad. The aim for me was to keep the nose clean, get a good start, get settled and then hand it over to Tim.

“I had the pace of everyone in front of us pretty well. Considering the little laps that I’ve done, I was very happy with the drive I put in. 

“There is still some improvement in the car, but there are worse places to start than eighth in a long race like this.”

Greg Murphy, Holden Racing Team #22, p10:

“I’d have liked to have moved up the order a bit in my race this morning but we managed to hold on and bring that car home 10th… and straight! 

“James (Courtney) was solid in the second qualifier with the car tuned more to his liking – I’m just really looking forward to getting stuck into it tomorrow.”

Luke Youlden, Lockwood Racing #14, p11:

"We were just lacking drive onto the two long straights. The car's quite good everywhere else but we can't exploit where we are quick compared to everyone else because we struggled on the two most important corners.

"I could see Jonesy was struggling and Baird was getting quite racey with him. I could see trouble coming a couple of corners away and I just waited for it to happen. We'd talked about it before the race; not being the aggressor but being opportunistic and being in the right place at the right time."

Steve Johnson, SP Tools Racing #9, p12: 

“We had a really good run, I was able to pull off a number of good passes and work my way forward in the field.

“If we can get the car off the corners a little better, I think we will be looking good for the race. 

“It was unfortunate that Maro (Engel) had the issue at turn one, but we’ll head out and do it all again tomorrow. One hundred and 61 laps is a long race and the SP Tools car has some pace, so we’ll just work away at it.”

Greg Ritter, Fujitsu Racing GRM #34, p13:

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“It wasn’t a bad day today at Sandown. It was a reasonable result, probably not the result we had hoped for but the car is straight and we have some tune up ideas for tomorrow which will hopefully make the car a little quicker.

“All in all not too bad. Alex (Premat) qualified in 14th, I finished 13th in my race, and Alex finished 12th, so not a bad start to the weekend and hopefully we can keep moving in the same direction tomorrow.”

Andrew Jones, Team BOC #8, p14:

"I was right on the defence from the word go. We were weak throughout the whole race to be honest.

"With the Bairdo incident, it was pretty tight going in there and I covered but had no rotation at the apex. I knew he was there and gave him room but he was way too shallow and we obviously made contact. We lost three spots out of it but all I really wanted to do was get to the end so we could tune it and give Brighty a better shot at it. "

David Russell, Jack Daniels Racing #7, p15:

"I'm reasonably happy with my race, I got a good start off the line, which pretty much guarantees you a safe couple of opening corners, but all the cars banked up in front and I just had to keep my nose clean.

"Unfortunately the two spots I gained off the start, I lost down the back straight, which was unfortunate, but it was a trouble free race for us.

"I focused on consistent laps rather than looking in the mirrors. We just wanted to make sure that we could take advantage of anything that came our way and there was something on the last corner that we benefited from, so started back in 15th and Todd (Kelly) can take it from there."

Matt Halliday, Dodo Insurance Racing #88, p18: 

“The car had some damage to the right rear corner after a knock on lap one which made it difficult to drive.

“We managed to push hard and salvage our way back up to 18th place which I was happy with; it was a good platform for Dean (Fiore) to start in Qualifying Race Two.”

Marc Lieb, Team TEKNO Darrell Lea #19, p20:

“I felt very comfortable until the safety car, and then I had contact with someone. The steering was all bent, and the toe was all wrong so I was fighting the car. I had good confidence, and good speed, so we will look at the data tonight and make it better for tomorrow.”

Karl Reindler, Jack Daniel’s Racing #15, p21:

"I was under very strict instructions to stay out of trouble, I wasn't allowed to watch the ute race right beforehand, but just kept my nose clean, stayed out of trouble and made up seven positions from where we qualified.

"It's positive, but I feel like we still have a bit of work to do with the car at the moment, it's not a very race-able car as far as strengths and weaknesses go, but we're going to make a few changes and we've got morning warm up and 500km to work it out tomorrow."

John McIntyre, Team JELD-WEN #18, p22: 

“I can’t wait for tomorrow really as it has been a tough day for us. Buried back in the pack there was incidents on restarts so that didn’t help us. In the second race the performance improved as Alex tried something different so we just need to be smart tomorrow and try and move forward throughout the race.”

Ryan Briscoe, Supercheap Auto Racing, p23:

“The incident with (Chris) Pither (21) was disappointing but the collision just before the Safety Car restart was my mistake. 

“There was a concertina and I wasn’t able to avoid the car in front.”

Craig Baird, IRWIN Racing, DNF:

“I was just chipping away out there and had a decent result on the board to hand across to Lee (Holdsworth) to bring it home in the second race.

“Unfortunately on the last lap, Andy Jones made a mistake and was vulnerable. He didn’t want to pay a price for the mistake and jumped off a curb and bounced the right rear tyre off our car.

“We had really good pace on board. I wasn’t trying to do anything stupid, the whole idea for me was to stay out of trouble and piece it together for Lee and then head into the big race tomorrow.”

Ash Walsh, Wilson Security DJR, DNF: 

“I got caught at the start and when I got back in the throttle I got wheelspin and lost quite a few positions. Then I was making my way through the field and passing cars. I had pretty good speed but I got collected by Douglas and turned around and from there we were in a bad position for the restart. There was some crazy stuff going on in front of me. I just had nowhere to go. It wasn’t a great day but they managed to turn the car around and Tim (Blanchard) did a good job in his race, so we move on to tomorrow.

“I think as a complete package we have decent speed, in compared to my speed compared to the co-drivers and Tim’s speed compared to the regular guys. Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll see what happens then.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen, Team TEKNO V.I.P. Petfoods, DNF:

“I felt pretty good in race conditions; I had a lot of fun. I could keep up with the guys ahead. I had a decent race until the driveshaft broke, so I’m feeling pretty comfortable for tomorrow. It’s a long race, but I think, as Shane (van Gisbergen) showed in the second race, we have a very strong car.”

Paul Morris, ekol Racing #80, DNF: 

“I was very happy with the car, I got an extremely good start, maybe a little good as I got nailed into turn one which broke the steering.”

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