October 24, 2003

Ingall fifth - Ambrose fails to make top 10 at Indy

Bosch-backed Stone Brothers Racing had mixed results in qualifying for the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge on the streets of Surfers Paradise today.

Russell Ingall qualified fifth in this Caltex Havoline Falcon while Marcos Ambrose failed to qualify for his first top 10 shootout this season in his Pirtek Ford. This weekend’s race will be the 11th round of the 13-round V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Ambrose “just missed the set-up” and actually clipped the wall with the left-hand rear of his car on one lap – although that did not affect the handling on his car.

The qualifying sessions for the upper and lower halves of the field were combined into one because of pending rain showers which never came.

The session was red flagged with three minutes remaining and the field was left with enough time to do one flying lap.

Ingall used the lap to improve from eighth to fifth, but Ambrose could not improve on his 14th place and actually dropped one spot.

Ingall has had some strong results on the Surfers Paradise street circuit in the past and has laid the foundation for a strong run tomorrow.

“That was a reasonable start and we just have to go on with the job tomorrow,” said Ingall.
“We are pretty keen to cement our place in the top three of the championship and a couple of good results will be required here to help that.
“This is my new home race of the season and it would be great to walk away with a bag of points – while saying that a 22-lap race around here will be a lot of work, especially if the heat keeps up.
“Caltex Havoline are also a major sponsor of the event, so a big result would be a little extra special.”

Ambrose, who leads the championship, was obviously disappointed with today’s result, especially after topping the time sheets in the opening practice session.

Today was the first time Ambrose has missed the top 10 shootout in 17 rounds – the last time was at Barbagallo in Perth last season.

“Obvioulsy today has been very disappointing,” said Ambrose.
“We just missed the set-up and we have to work pretty hard overnight to ensure we have a good race car tomorrow.
“It is pretty frustrating when you are not running competitively.


On the current points score, Ambrose has to finish sixth or better in the six remaining races of the year to win the championship – that is the worst case situation with Greg Murphy winning all the races.

Mark Skaife was quickest in the session followed by former Champ Car driver Max Wilson, who now lives less than 1km from the track, and Jason Bright.

There will be a top 10 Shootout tomorrow followed by a 22-lap 100km race tomorrow afternoon.

TOP 20 QUALIFYING
1: Mark Skaife (Holden) 1:50.8954
2: Max Wilson (Ford) 1:51.3122
3: Jason Bright (Holden) 1:51.3916
4: Greg Murphy (Holden) 1:51.4748
5: Russell Ingall (Ford) 1:51.5291
6: Jason Richards (Holden) 1:51.5920
7: Steve Richards (Holden) 1:51.6981
8: Steve Ellery (Ford) 1:51.7113
9: Rick Kelly (Holden) 1:51.7395
10: Todd Kelly (Holden) 1:51.9309
11. Dean Canto (Ford) 1:51:9700
12. Steve Johnson (Ford) 1:52:0238
13. Simon Wills (Holden) 1:52:0491
14. Glenn Seton (Ford) 1:52:1323
15: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 1:52.1675
16. Paul Radisich (Ford) 1:52:1985
17. David Besnard (Ford) 1:52:3300
18. John Bowe (Ford) 1:52:3537
19. Craig Lowndes(Ford) 1:52:5433
20. Cameron McConville (Holden) 1:52:5856

TRACK FACTS – SURFERS PARADISE
Venue: Streets of Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland
2003 Race format: Qualifying (Friday); Top 10 Shootout and Race 1 (22 Laps-100km) (Saturday); Race 2 (22 laps-100km) (Sunday)
Circuit Length: 4.5km
Circuit Direction: Anti-Clockwise
Maximum Speed: 265 km/h (Back Straight)
Qualifying Record – Greg Murphy (VX Commodore) 1.50.7030 (2002)
Lap Record – Marcos Ambrose (AU Falcon) 1:51.6490 (2002)

V8 SUPERCARS (All times Eastern Standard)

Saturday – October 25, 2003
11.45am-12.05am – Warm-up
12.15pm – 12.55pm – Top 10 Shootout
3.15pm – Race (22 Laps)

Sunday – October 26, 2003
9.20am-9.40am – Warm-up
11.55am - Race 2 (22 Laps)

TV TELECAST – NETWORK TEN
Saturday – 11am-5pm
Sunday – 11am-6pm