Bright Sparks Record Testing Day
A V8 SUPERCAR testing session that turnedinto a shootout for the day’s quickest time has been watched by nearly 18,000people today at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The stunning crowd of 17,600 – a record forany pre-season official V8 Supercar test day - braved intermittent showers thisafternoon to watch Brad Jones Racing duo Jason Bright and Fabian Coulthardcomplete a one-two sweep of today’s running and topple the circuit practice in theprocess.
A highlight of the day was a packedstart-finish straight as thousands of fans had a rare opportunity to get upclose and personal with their favourite drivers or cars during the lunch break– but the on-track action was just as scintillating.
This afternoon’s session resembled the last10 minutes of a qualifying session rather than a test day.
Driving his Team BOC Commodore, Bright toppedtoday’s running with a 1m28.9655s lap that was comfortably underneath CraigLowndes’ previous record of 1m29.2493s.
Coulthard, second, also dipped under theexisting benchmark in his sister BJR entry, trailing Bright by just 0.0402safter more than six hours of total running today.
Intermittent rain showers made thisafternoon’s session more of a challenge for teams and drivers, several teamsonly getting minimal running in between showers.
Today’s results will be a pleasing result forthe hard-working Albury based team who were far from the first in getting theirnext-generation V8 Supercars to the circuit – their first car only getting itsfirst shakedown early in January.
Holden’s dominated this afternoon’s runningwith David Reynolds and Mark Winterbottom making progress for the Factory Fordteam, Pepsi Max Crew FPR, and cracking the Top 10.
As he did earlier in the day, Rick Kelly endeda promising day for Nissan Motorsport in fifth place driving his Jack Daniel’sAltima. Overall, today’s top-10 featured seven Holdens, two Fords and Kelly’sNissan.
Regardless of today’s activities – be theytesting race packages or going for outright speed - it remains clear thatTriple Eight Racing will continue to be a force in V8 Supercars and may in facthave strengthened their arsenal this year.
A total of five cars built by theQueensland-based team filled the Top 10 overall, including both Red Bull RacingAustralia entries piloted by Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport drivers Dean Fiore(4th) and South Australian rookie Scott Pye (6th) werehighly impressive in their plain-white VF Holdens, whilst Jonathon Webb’s TeknoAutosport VF was 10th.
Shane van Gisbergen – inside the top 10 thismorning on his first ‘official’ run in a Holden – ended the day 12thquickest overall.
German driver Maro Engel was the quickest of theErebus Motorsport Mercedes AMG trio, finishing the day 14th in his#9 SP Tools Racing entry.
The impressive sportscar and GT ace had runwell inside the Top-10 earlier in the afternoon sessions, before being shuffleddown the order as the quick times came towards the end of the day.
Slade (20th) and Holdsworth (24th)only gained limited laps this afternoon with Engel doing the bulk of therunning but proving he has what it takes to succeed in V8 Supercars.
Whilst several V8 teams will now concentrateon preparations for the Clipsal 500 Adelaide in two weeks, several have plansfor private testing between now and the season opener.
25 cars of the 28 that will start the seasonopener ran today; Nissan Motorport electing to test Todd Kelly and MichaelCaruso next week in Victoria.
Dick Johnson Racing is yet to confirm asecond driver though it is understood the team has their selection down tothree candidates.
The Clipsal 500 Adelaide will be held betweenFebruary 28-March 3rd.
Click here to see the full, combined times from today's official pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park.
