Drivers' Quoteboard: Wilson Security Sandown 500 Qualifying
13 Sep 2014
"It was a good start to the weekend for the #1 Holden. We were a little bit behind the eight ball in the first qualifying session but we managed to get it all sorted. It´s always interesting watching the co-drivers go round but Paul (Dumbrell) did a great job in the first qualifying race by keeping us at the start of the grid and also tuned the car up for our final qualifying race of the day. There was the call that he´d had a potential jumpstart but once the footage was replayed in sync with the starting lights we knew the stewards had made the right call in clearing in. Now we´ve just got to keep the momentum and energy up for the first endurance race of the season tomorrow."
"It was a bit touch and go at the start for Webb´s jumped start (investigation) but he got it perfect in the end. Great job by him, normally that co-driver race is the worst one to watch but he´s someone I can trust, he was pulling great passes and moved forward. Starting off the front row certainly made my job a lot easier.
"Lap 161 tomorrow I would´ve slammed him (Whincup) on the door... It was really cool to be on edge like that, we were on fire. I´m sure the other boys will push us tomorrow but it was really cool. We´ve got a good car, not perfect... but not too far away. Good starting point tomorrow and we´ll see if we´re there at the end."
"It is good to be up the front again and third is a great starting position for tomorrow. It relieves a lot of the pressure that racing in the pack brings as that´s what we´ve done at the last two events and it´s cost us. We´ve still got a bit of work to do as our pace isn´t competitive enough yet. Steve (Owen) did a great job and we both know that we have to be patient tomorrow as it will be a long day with a lot of things thrown at us."
"It was a pretty uneventful race. We got JC off the line, and then just settled in. We made some changes to the Commodore after Warren´s (Luff) race, which made it better in some areas and not quite as good in others. We had a great qualifying car today, and we learnt what we needed to for tomorrow´s race - we´ll make the changes overnight and give it a go tomorrow."
"I started fifth, and got passed by Garth Tander. I just kept out of trouble and made sure I didn´t get in contact with anyone given all the points are awarded tomorrow. We´ve got a bit to work on tonight, but looking forward to tomorrow´s race and getting reward for all the hard work."
"I´m happy enough to be starting from the fourth row on the grid because it keeps us out of the mischief at the beginning of the race. Having said that, tomorrow is a long day so it doesn´t really matter where you start as long as you can keep it clean for the first half of the race and of course strategy plays a big part. We´re still working on the car but it´s good for me and Steve (Richards) to both have a race under our belts so we know its strengths and weaknesses. 161 laps is always going to be tough and I think all the teams were trying out a few different things today but the Holden Racing Team and the Volvo team were fast in a straight line but for all of us, a lot of it is going to come down to managing tyre life tomorrow."
"Qualified eighth, Dean (Canto) finished eighth and I finished eighth. Sadly eighth wasn´t enough! I would have liked to have been a little further up, but it´s not a bad place to start. It´s a long race tomorrow, Deano is competitive, so hopefully we can make up some ground and be there at the end tomorrow."
"I´m happy after qualifying, nice to be back towards the front and inside the top-10 after our recent run. Tony did an awesome job in his race, and we made a few changes for my race - and ninth is a good place to start from tomorrow. It´s a long race, and we´re going to make more changes overnight to get us where we need to be for tomorrow´s 161-lap Sandown 500."
"Holdsworth gave me a pretty big hit. I had pretty much no opposite lock left to save it but luckily we were going at the right speed and I was able to hold on to it. For me, there wasn´t a great deal I could do, it´s pretty hard to pass. There are two long straights here and we´re struggling a little bit with straight line speed which makes it tough. We need to tune the car up a little bit overnight. It´s a long race so we´ve got to make sure we´re there at the finish."
"I didn´t get too bad a start, I moved up on the car in front and I ended up with two cars on the inside of me at turn one, which resulted in me getting run off there a little bit.
"I dropped a spot, and I tried to fight pretty hard to get it back on the first lap, but I couldn´t quite get that one done.
"That´s where we ended up, and realistically that´s probably where our pace was.
"I had the measure of the guys in front, but certainly nowhere near enough speed to attack and pass.
"A little bit of work to do tonight, there´s a little bit of understeer, and if we can tune that out we can make our pace better for the stints tomorrow.
"Alex did an unreal job.
"It surprised me at the start, because he had only done three or four practice starts before today, and I was waiting for him to lose a few off the line.
"But he did an amazing job in the opening laps and throughout the whole race, so I couldn´t be happier with his performance."
"Since we got here, we´ve had quite a quick car.
"Qualifying didn´t quite go to plan early on, we made some changes and probably went the wrong way with our balance but we learnt from that and came back with a decent car for ´Bairdo´s´ race.
"He made up three positions, had a great run and set me up to start 14th on the gird for my race.
"I was a bit nervous on the grid knowing that other people were running better tyres than me as we opted to go with some older tyres so that we´ve got a better chance tomorrow.
"Our focus is always on the result tomorrow, not so much today, so I was really pleased to get a couple of spots off the line, hold my ground and finish 12th.
"Anything can happen in these races, if you´ve got the race pace you can win it anywhere.
"Tonight we´ll go through it and make sure we keep progressing forward rather than make those mistakes we made for qualifying.´´
"Ultimately, it´s disappointing, because generally our car handles really well, but we just didn´t have the pace.
"Sandown has always been a hard place to pass, but particularly this weekend as we´re still struggling up and down the straights. The characteristics of this track just don´t give us a chance.
"Tomorrow´s race hasn´t been lost today, which means we need to think about the car overnight."
"In that race I just waited for the guys in front of me to do what they were going to do, and thankfully we capitalised on it.
"I spent most of the start of the race just learning things for tomorrow with car positioning, using fuel and saving fuel, and seeing what numbers were popping up.
"So for us to make a couple of spots there at the end, was a bit of a bonus.
"In the heat of the battle I got bumped a couple of times, and it bent the rear wheel, so I was a little nervous over the last couple of laps, but there was no drama.
"A good bit of fun, and a good bit of learning for tomorrow."
"It´s very hard to pass out there, you´re talking about a 20 lap sprint race on hard tyres so it was never going to be easy. It gets very frustrating, I feel like we´ve got much better pace than where we are at the moment so I felt like I had to do something to move forward and in an effort to pass Caruso I put myself on the back foot and ended up losing a spot. We definitely should be in the top 10. We´ve just got to get out of this little rat race in the middle there and I feel like if we can get in the top 10 we´ll hold our own pretty easy."
"It was a processional Sandown race as the cars are so even and it´s so hard to pass here unless someone makes a mistake. Jason Bright and I clashed wheels late in the race as he had the elbows up and I was trying to find a way past.
"The car is quite good and we just need to make a few minor improvements for tomorrow´s race."
"It was a tough old day for car six. I qualified poorly which was annoying as all the other guys seemed to do well. In the first race Paul was hampered by my poor qualifying and he did a good job to stay out of the craziness. He handed it over to me and I moved up a few spots but it wasn´t far enough. We have good car speed, I was in the top 10 for fastest laps and our pace in clean air wasn´t too bad compared to the leaders. If we can get in the top 10 tomorrow it will be a successful weekend. That was the goal and if we are consistent and mistake-free we can do it."
"Today was tough. Qualifying did not go to plan and we started too far back. Ash had a tough race with a bad start and then getting a time penalty.
"We started the second race effectively last and got through to a solid position. We lost a few at the end and finished the day where we Qualified. The car did show potential however. "
"Quali didn´t go to plan, but Cam did a great job to get to 18th. In my race, at the first corner on the first lap I had to get out of the way of a spinning Russell Ingall, and ended up in the dirt. I fell to the back as a result, but was able to push through to 20th by the end. It´s always a shame to lose some places from where we started, but we´ve got pretty good car speed and we can do something from here. It´s a long race tomorrow."
"To be honest, that was the most difficult the car has ever been. There was nothing we could do with it. It has been a hard day.
"You can´t compete at this level with the car that we have, and if we go into the race with that car balance, it´s going to be a long day.
"We´ll work on it overnight and try and make it better."
"A long day with not a lot to show for the effort. Qualifying was again our weak point, and then Stevie J got a puncture after Douglas hit him. It was virtually impossible to improve in Race 1 after the pit stop, so I had started leg two from the back of the field.
"There was a bit going on at Turn 1 but we got through and moved up a couple of spots. From there I was looking at the back of Moffat´s Nissan for the next 19 laps but did not have the speed to get past him.
"We will work hard overnight to try and get a good result for the Wilson Security team tomorrow."
"It´s a disappointing result, especially with a qualifying format that probably would have suited us.
"We caught the pack quickly but with only a short stint we weren´t able to make up much ground.
"The car has come back with a few knocks so the we´ll fix it up tonight and come out strong for tomorrow´s 500."
"It was difficult because we just ran Chris´s (Pither´s) set of tyres. We were better off saving a set of tyres for tomorrow so we´re in a better position for tomorrow but it´s certainly not ideal that we´re starting last."
