Its bathurst time...

[motorsportnerd]

Well, on the plus side, it now means that the no 16 Autobarn Commodore becomes a more serious contender - there can be no doubting that Rick Kelly actually has a bit of talent (much as it pains me to say that - but as he gets older he seems to be maturing a bit). So, anyone who put a bet on the no 16 Commodore at the TAB may be quietly smiling as the chances of the car winning have now improved.

[motorsportnerd]

The full story on the driver swap here: News - The Official Website of V8 Supercars Australia.

Seems David Reynolds has been suffering from a virus all weekend.

[nota]

Note the wordage? Not "all weekend" but "this weekend". The no-timescale (and not terribly unusual) rehydration adds both drama and reinforcement to the cause of Big Cocky's little cock

Dumbrell’s original co-driver, David Reynolds, has been ill this weekend with a viral infection and has been on a saline drip and will not take part in tomorrow’s race.

Wonder how many minutes it took after the realisation that car #15 would definately be a non-starter, for the hapless Reynolds to be suddenly diagnosed with Kellyitis and get a needle shoved up his arm?

[donwarra]

Note the wordage? Not "all weekend" but "this weekend". The no-timescale (and not terribly unusual) rehydration adds both drama and reinforcement to the cause of Big Cocky's little cock



Wonder how many minutes it took after the realisation that car #15 would definately be a non-starter, for the hapless Reynolds to be suddenly diagnosed with Kellyitis and get a needle shoved up his arm?

thats what i think. With him unable to drive left it open for kelly to drive. I dont think we have heard the end of this.

[Daz27]

Yeah as I said, its not exactly the first time hsvdt have bent the rules just a little. I dont know about you but I would be in the race even if I had to wear the bloody drip while driving the car if I was one D Reynolds. I guess its a bit of a plus if mummy and daddy run the bloody team.

[donwarra]

Yeah if it the crash didnt happen there is no way Reynolds would have missed the drive. Now we will just have to sit back and wait for karma to rear its ugly head.

[fpv_gtho]

FPV, there was a pretty big shake up after the Porter crash with regards to side impact and as far as I am aware there are now mandatory side impact criteria in regards to the rollcage etc in place now.

I'd heard talk of foam filling the door cavities after the Porter crash (i havent paid much attention since the switch to 7), but AFAIK the roll cage and crash structure is still an open element from team to team. Even if for instance there were mandated dimensions for side impact beams etc, different teams will have fabricators of different talent levels able to put it all together etc. Having the VE a silhouette car whilst the BF is still built from a shell could be what made all the difference.

[Falcon500]

Rumours on ten-tenths are that Andrew Thompson (whose car was wrecked in yesterday's crash) may share the drive. However, Neil Crompton mentioned on the coverage that the regs may not allow another driver to jump in. I assume that would also prevent Rick swapping to the HSVDT team's second car.

Didnt stop David Besnard from pairing up with Glenn Seton in 02 (i beleive) when his ex motorcycle racing team mate (wayne gardener i think) crashed the catlex Falcon for him.

Setons driver at the time also had a virus....either way a vlaient effort which didnt do as well as one could of hoped because they didnt tighten all the hoses on the gearbox...also made qualifying bad for others.

[Daz27]

I bloody knew Lowndes and Whincup would win. I said it to heaps of people too and all I got was crap, well, in your face suckers...
Well done boys, Brocky was smilin on ya again!

[Falcon500]

Was a good race there was plenty of talk about Greg fuel at the end and it was very apparent that FPR's rear treads had gone off could of proven very intresting if there was a hanfull more laps with the Stone Bros. falcon showing alot of pace on the last few laps but oh well.

And some very good showings by Bargs, Wilson, Bradly Jones and Seton who all sufferd to certain degree but ran very strongly regardless.

I muat say its a result im very happy with

[motorsportnerd]

Domination. Lowndes/Whincup were the best all day and deserved the win. Prior to the first rather pointless safety car, they had a minute's lead on the field. Seemed to me that everytime one of the other drivers sneezed in the second half of the race, race control pulled out the safety car to stop the 888 guys rebuilding the lead.
Only incident involving the 888 car was on the first lap when Lowndes and Murphy touched. Naturally Murph blamed Lowndes and Lowndes claimed he was recovering from being pushed over to the grass. Racing incident and I don't think it affected the result.

So, Lowndes/Whincup become the first drivers ever to win three Bathurst 1000s in a Ford, and join the Peter Brock/Jim Richards (78-80) and Peter Brock/Larry Perkins (82-84) as the third driving combination to have achieved the feat.
Only question now, is can they be the first combination to make it four in a row in 2009? Considering that 888 is the best endurance team in the country and both drivers are more than capable, I'd say they have a good chance. Perhaps 888 should try for a 1-2 next year and put the two fastest non-regular drivers with lots of V8 Supercar experience that they can find into 88 and go for it.

[Falcon500]

Lets forcus on the next races and the championship before we get to far ahead of ourselves MSN

edit: and im sure murph will say later that they sufferd in dramatic fashion with that dastardly contact (racing incident) with lowndes but soldiored on for a grea finish......

[motorsportnerd]

The 2008 championship still looks to be a three way battle between Mark Winterbottom, Garth Tander and new series leader Jamie Whincup
Not really sure who my money is on. Winterbottom has had the fastest car in the sprints all year - car wasn't quite quick enough in the enduros but he still scored good points in both enduros.
Tander is at present the best all-round driver in the series. He dropped to third after a difficult Bathurst, but is still in touch with the other two.
And Whincup is with a great team and is in great touch, though I don't think the Triple 8 cars are quite as quick as the FPR ones in sprint format.

[Falcon500]

Tander really needs both them to get a dnf or some incredibly shonky results but there isnt much in whincup vs frosty IIRC 32 points is all.

[Spastik_Roach]

must say i'm pretty stoked, liked the racing this year was exciting stuff to watch.