Turn eight’s first victim
Turn eight has claimed its first victim in the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series, with Bryce Fullwood hitting the corner hard during qualifying at the Clipsal 500.
The young driver fired into the concrete at the infamous corner with under two minutes remaining in the 15-minute qualifying session. He had previously recorded the 11th best time, which he will lose for bringing out the red flag.
Fullwood was very wide approaching the corner and went into the wall in an unusual place, with commentators Greg Rust and Greg Murphy speculating there may have been an issue with the car.
Fullwood emerged from the car and gave the fans the thumbs up, his Ford Falcon parked up at the runoff near turn nine.
The session was called with less than two minutes remaining on the clock, leaving young gun Todd Hazelwood to start from ARMOR ALL Pole Position.
Working with established engineer Wes McDougall – known in pit lane from his Stone Brothers Racing and Erebus days – Hazelwood’s 1min21.5464 lap was just 0.15sec ahead of BJR’s young star Josh Kean.
Seasoned hands Paul Dumbrell and Andrew Jones lock out the next two rows, with Prodrive’s newcomer Jack Le Brocq in fifth.
Dumbrell and Kean were both quick early in the session, but were topped by the 2014 Mike Kable Young Gun Award winner Hazelwood at the last minute. It is his first ever Pole Position in the category.
Fifteen-year old Alex Rullo made the session after his Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport team worked late into the night to repair his Commodore after a fire in yesterday’s practice session.
A ruptured fuel cell meant the team had to source a new fuel tank. He came home 25th after failing to get any laps under his belt in yesterday’s second session.
The Dunlop Series cars will tackle the first 19-lap race around the Adelaide Parklands circuit this afternoon at 5.15pm local time.
Click here for full results from the qualifying session.
