Plenty of Pace, but no Luck for Douglas

The old adage ‘That’s motor racing’ all but summed up the weekend Taz Douglas and the ARVO/Image Racing team had during the Sucrogen Townsville 400 Dunlop V8 Supercars Series races – some good, some not so good.

“It started brilliantly,” Taz admitted on reflection. “We were pretty happy with our Friday pace. Mixed in with the extra miles I had in the (Nissan Motorsport) Nissan during the ‘main game’ sessions (as co-driver for James Moffat), I was happy with my speed, and that of the car.

“We qualified pretty well, but also only did a small number of laps to conserve our tyres with the heat and the aggressive nature of the circuit. I’m not sure we had the pace for pole, but we were certainly good enough for second, but the top six were so close I could only manage sixth; 15 one hundredths off P2.

“Race one was pretty cruisy at the start, I got up to fifth and was just sitting comfortably. The top six were probably being a bit cautious to start the weekend, and we just settled into a rhythm until the first safety car. On the restart we all went back into single file before Cameron Waters tried a big inside move from well back and cleaned Jack [Perkins] and I up at turn one. It was one of those moves we’ve all made, and regretted afterwards, but it ruined the race for us, because the car was just starting to come on.

“From there I recovered and was sitting 11th behind Andre Heimgartner. In the dying stages I had a bit of a look up the inside into one of the slower corners, and he braked earlier than I expected and couldn’t avoid contact and turned him around.

“I wasn’t really going for the place, but positioned myself to take advantage if he was slow out of the corner, and he caught me by surprise. The data showed that I was forced to brake 12 metres earlier than the lap before, but that's what happens when you’re mid-pack amongst some of the guys that aren’t quite as experienced.

“I made sure I apologised post-race.”

A normally unflappable Terry Wyhoon added in frustration, "But Waters didn't".

“It was a silly desperate move," Wyhoon said. "We’ve all made them, but the normal course of action, embarrassing as it is, is to apologise to the driver and the team afterwards just as Taz did.”

Sadly for the Image Racing team the contact added a time penalty to the final result, dropping Taz back down to 26th for the start of race two.

“Unfortunately race two didn’t bring much joy because we developed a front brake issue pretty quickly,” Taz explained. “They got too hot and started to grain up, so we just didn’t have the pace to move forward too far which was disappointing because we knew how good the car was.”

Off P25 [starting position is a combination of the results from races one and two] for the final race, Taz managed to avoid the expected mid-pack carnage and move back into the top ten in the dying stages, aided by a post-race penalty for some of the drivers who finished ahead of him.

“They warn us at every event, don’t go back down pit lane after the race, yet every time a group of them forget... I couldn’t believe it, but I’m not going to complain, it made what was a difficult weekend a little less difficult in the end, so we’ll take that.

“We’ve dropped to seventh in the Championship, but one good race and we’re back in the fight, so we’re a long way from finished.

“I like Ipswich (Queensland Raceway, where the next Dunlop Series event is running July 26-28) and had a good run there in the ‘main game’ last year, and with some more miles coming in the Nissan (as a co-driver), we should be in with a real shot. Fortunately it’s only three weeks away.”

Image Racing team-boss Terry Wyhoon said motor racing was a tough gig. “It wasn’t a great weekend, but could have been a lot worse. Taz continues to impress me, he drives with a very cool and mature head for a young driver. As a driver myself sometimes I wish he would take more risks, but at the end of the day, when you do that you risk more damage, and the potential to suffer a DNF, so I can’t fault his judgment. We’re still in the mix, and with some good events ahead, it’s still a long way from over.”