Team CoolDrive Bathurst 1000 Supercars Recap14 Oct, 2019 After all the hours put in with testing and preparation, the biggest race of the year had finally arrived.The day kicked off with a 20-minute warm-up session to prepare the cars and then we were ready and set to go racing for 161 gruelling laps. After a delayed start the Safety Car was out on lap one after an incident involving teammate Tim Slade in Car 14 who hit the wall 5 corners into the race. Macca started the race and got a great start before settling into his rhythm. As the race progressed, both drivers complained that the car was suffering from difficult understeer. The car was also called to pit lane to secure a loose front guard. During this stop, Canto jumped back into the car to complete a single stint. The team had been hoping for a second safety car to get back on to the lead lap but while there were safety cars aplenty as the race progressed, Macca, unfortunately, remained a lap down. The team was also impacted when Fabian Coulthard held up a multitude of cars behind him so he wouldn't have to double stack in pit lane behind his teammate. This led to a penalty for Coulthard but time lost for Macca. It was a race to the finish with 20 laps to go and all cars needing to fuel save to make it to the finish line. With further accidents and cars coming off the track everywhere the final 10 laps were anything but boring. Car #21 with Macauley Jones and Dean Canto behind the wheel eventually finished the Great Race in P17. THE WORD FROM MACAULEY“A difficult race out there. It’s always hard starting down the back and it was a quick start, so I was trying to find the speed to stay with the pack. Being one lap down is not what we want and we were so close to getting back but we needed everyone to pit in front of me so I could stay out and get the lap back. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and that’s how I ended the race. The team worked so hard and we have learnt so much over the week and the race. I have taken away some great positive things and we will keep working away moving on to Gold Coast now.” THE WORD FROM DEAN“Bathurst 1000 always throws curveballs. The pace of the race at the start was quite quick and we were just a little bit off. No Safety Cars at the start of the race hurt us and when you start at the back of the pack you are already a far way back. Being a lap down and fighting to get it back, we got close so many times. The crew worked tirelessly all day and performed faultless pit stops so my hats off to everyone. We will learn from today and move onto the Gold Coast in two weeks.” TRACK TIMES - SATURDAY 12TH OCTOBERPractice Six (All Drivers)TIME: 09:40 – 10:10 CONDITIONS: Dry, overcast FINISHED: Position 16th – 1m06.1618 FASTEST: Will Davison / Alex Davison – 2m04.7545 RECAP: Positive session on track finishing with P16. The team making some adjustments overnight that capitalised on the cars speed and a step forward in preparation for the big one. Practice Seven (All Drivers)TIME: 12:10 - 12:40 CONDITIONS: Dry, overcast FINISHED: Position 22nd – 2m06.1897 FASTEST: Chaz Mostert / James Moffat – 2m035089 RECAP: The final session on track and last chance to experiment with some different set-ups. The team running through their program, making some adjustments getting as many laps in under their belt as possible. Unfortunately sitting out of the top ten shootout but the boys will continue to tune her up for the big one tomorrow.
Top Ten ShootoutTIME: 17:05 - 17:50 CONDITIONS: Dry, overcast QUALIFIED: Position 23rd SHOOTOUT RESULT / STARTING POSITION FOR B1000: Position 23rd POLE POSITION: Scott McLaughlin – 2m03.3783 THE GREAT RACE RESULT – BATHURST 1000 – RACE 25 / 161 LAPS TIME: 11:30am CONDITIONS: Sunny, dry WINNERS: Scott McLaughlin / Alexandre Premat SECOND: Shane Van Gisbergen / Garth Tander THIRD: James Courtney / Jack Perkins PLACE 17th: Macauley Jones / Dean Canto COMING UPRound Two of the Pirtek Endurance Cup Vodafone Gold Coast 600 Surfers Paradise, Queensland 25th – 27th October CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS1 – Scott McLaughlin - 3308 2 – Shane Van Gisbergen – 2686 3 – Fabian Coulthard -2521 4 – Chaz Mostert – 2441 5 – Jamie Whincup – 2380 21 – Macauley Jones – 999 More photos and video recaps from the weekend are available on the Team CoolDrive Facebook page now! |
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