Betty proud of Erebus crew after Townsville
The V8 Supercars races were tough for Erebus Motorsport, but after fieldingseven cars across three categories at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 Betty Klimenko could not be more proud of her crew.
Erebus runs two V8 Supercars for Will Davison and Ash Walsh, as well as two GT cars and three V8 Utes, which all happened to be on the schedule for the jam-packed Townsville event over the weekend.
"It's not an easy weekend ... we've got seven cars on the grid," Klimenko said.
"Saying seven cars is easy but actually having to go to each category and making sure that each team is fed and everything else is a big job.
"I'm proud of them, they all fit in well, everyone's done their job and couldn't be prouder."
For Davison's side of the V8 Supercars garage, there was a positive in making the ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout on Sunday, guaranteeing a starting position in the first five rows of the 200km race. And while it was a good start from the former Townsville winner -who achieved his first podium result with Erebus Motorsport at the street track last year -a miscalculation ultimately put them out of the race.
"We had a pretty determined strategy based on what we learnt," Davison's race engineer Luke Mason explained.
"Obviously the Safety Car [on Sunday] caused a bit of chaos and we made a strategy call to pit, which in hindsight was the correct decision to make, but unfortunately we made a small error with our fuel calculations that cost us our position on the lead lap and it was a struggle from there to get that back."
On the other side of the garage, rookie Ash Walsh suffered from different issues, which ultimately forced him to change his driving style in a big way.
"I've been having knee issues throughout the year," he explained.
"Ergonomically the car is not really set up for left foot braking, so I've been having a lot of issues getting a lot of pain in the longer races.
"It seems to be getting worse, so I had to switch to right foot braking halfway through the race and I've never actually right foot braked a V8 Supercar before. So that was pretty interesting and it was pretty integral.
"A few things to think about after this round."
The standout across the seven cars was young driver Adam Marjoram in the Auto One/Erebus Motorsport V8 Ute, finishing second overall for the round, while Craig Dontas and Kim Jane were fifth and sixth respectively.
"It was an excellent weekend for us overall and we've really come a long way since this time last year," the 20-year oldsaid.
"I do love this track, and I think I drove well, but all the credit must go to my crew who do such a fantastic job preparing my car.
"We are now back up to second in the points standings, and I've reduced the gap between me and [V8 Utes leader] Ryal Harris who is leading, so that's really encouraging."
