V8 Supercar Championship Round 4 - Hidden Valley

[motorsportnerd]

I'm surprised FPV or Falc haven't already started this thread. So here goes.
The Australian V8 Supercar Championship is at Hidden Valley Raceway near Darwin this weekend.
After qualifying, Jason Bright (PWR Commodore) was quickest. The entire field of 32 was seperated by just 1.6 seconds, with the top 28 within 1 second, such is the competitiveness and closeness of the field in this championship.
In the top 10 shoot out Mark Skaife took pole. The top 10 on the grid was
1st Mark Skaife HRT Holden Commodore VY
2nd Todd Kelly HRT Holden Commodore VY
3rd Jason Bright PWR Holden Commodore VY
4th Marcus Ambrose SBR Pirtek Ford Falcon BA
5th Russell Ingall SBR Caltex Ford Falcon BA
6th Steven Richards Castrol Perkins Holden Commodore VY
7th Rick Kelly K-Mart Holden Commodore VY
8th Max Wilson Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA
9th Simon Wills Team Dynamic Holden Commodore VY
10th Jason Bargwanna LMS Ford Falcon BA

The first race was won this afternoon. It looked like Mark Skaife would win right up until the very last corner. Marcus Ambrose took advantage of Skaife leaving the door open and attempted to pass. Skaife was having none of it and they collided. Skaife ran off the circuit and rejoined to finish 13th. Ambrose ran wide, lost two places and drove down the finish straight with bent steering to finish 3rd. Russell Ingall took advantage of the collision between Skaife and Ambrose to win, with Todd Kelly second.
Skaife was rather unimpressed by the collision. He assumed that as the championship leader, Ambrose would play it safe and take second. I don't think he expected Ambrose to attempt a overtaking move on the last corner. I haven't heard Ambrose's comments on the incident yet, but TV footage on the news tonight (no live coverage of race 1) showed that Ambrose was well passed the B-pillar before the two collided. Thus, by V8 Supercar rules, it was a fair pass and Skaife should have yielded.
So, Skaife has now had run-ins with both Stone Brothers Racing drivers (he and Ingall had a coming to together in the last round last year). I don't think either Ambrose or Ingall will be on Skaife's Xmas card list this year.
Final results of race 1 were:
1st Russell Ingall SBR Caltex Ford Falcon BA
2nd Todd Kelly HRT Holden Commodore VY
3rd Marcus Ambrose SBR Ford Falcon BA
4th Jason Bright PWR Holden Commodore VY
5th Steven Richards Castrol Perkins Holden Commodore VY
6th Rick Kelly K-Mart Holden Commodore VY
7th Jason Bargwanna LMS Ford Falcon BA
8th John Bowe BJR OzeMail Ford Falcon BA
9th Paul Radisich Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA
10th Max Wilson Triple 888 Ford Falcon BA

Races 2 and 3 are on tomorrow. No doubt there will be plenty said in the next couple of days about the Skaife/Ambrose crash.

[Falcon500]

apprently ambbrose and ingall and several other people gave evidence that itwas a fair manuver....i think skaifes just wingeing because he can.....

[Waatz]

Ambrose spins team mate Ingal in the first corner!
Ambrose gets drive through for loosing a wheelnut in his first pitstop!
Lovin it!!

[fpv_gtho]

i missed the first 2 races and the start of race 3 , but it was all good as i was doing the go carts at Eastern Creek as a birthday present from my older brother

I think Skaife's just a bit bitter, that after taking 2002 by storm and his team runing into big trouble last year, that this early in the championship he's already out for the count in boxing terms.

Ambrose seemed to really be on the pace during the 3rd race and stole 2nd from Richo from outside of the top 10, most of the work it seems was from his pit stop. It was being said alot of the time that the mid corner speed the SBR cars were showing was almost a step above the rest of the field which is always good news i think, being an SBR fan.

It seems Richo regains his championship lead by a small margin of 10 points, but both are still quite clear of both Murph and Bright who are the only real championship contenders out there as T.Kelly, Skaife and Ingall seem to be too far behind to chase for the lead, and i dont think R.Kelly will be consistent enough over the corse of this season to challenge Ambrose.

And just for the record Brendon, i completely forgot to make the thread this weekend i knew the race was on, but it never occured to start it up. Now ive got to go off and re-adjust my championship points thread (probably more work than its worth, but i still do it )

[fpv_gtho]

So far race 1 is done, so heres the link for all those who are interested: http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum...1355#post61355

[Falcon500]

Ambrose spins team mate Ingal in the first corner!
Ambrose gets drive through for loosing a wheelnut in his first pitstop!
Lovin it!!

Its not justice at all....there where stupid decisions made by ambrose and both skaife in these incidences...skaife is the onlyone who believes he was in the right in them incidences...ithink for the 2nd one ambrose lost concintration when bright tryed to put the squeaze on him...and that said ingall got 3rd and the tround winner was someone who isnt really a threat.....and skaife got nothing...now even lowndes is ahead of him in points....things have turned out ok....as for richo being on top of the poitns...im chossing not to treat it with a grain of salt...10 points pfffft...so you can love it all you want skaife got jack all and hrt didnt really gain anything at all
as for suprises...bright and wheel...both showed promis but had really bad luck...murph blocking...lowndes being faster then murph!...dfidnt have the laps to catch him....team dynamik being so far off the pace...

[motorsportnerd]

Interesting weekend's racing. Race 1 was definately the best race. Pity it wasn't shown live. Just 3 minutes of highlights.
Ambrose was in the wars. If he had driven a little more conservatively he would have won the round and kept the championship lead. He even said this in hindsight at the end of race 3. However, as he said, he is a racer.
The race 1 incident was a racing incident. Certainly can't blame Ambrose. He was past Skaife's B-pillar and had the corner. I wouldn't really blame Skaife either. Skaife just didn't expect Ambrose to overtake and didn't defend his line properly. I think he let off steam because he was upset with himself and much as anything. Skaife could have yeilded and finished 2nd. Also, Ambrose could have been more conservative and taken 2nd. So, either way, a racing incident, and at least we saw some real racing.
The race 2 incident between Ambrose and Ingall was clearly Ambrose's fault. He blamed Bright, but unfortunately just braked too late into turn 1. Ingall copped the hit. Ingall appeared to take it on the chin, but I'm not sure he'll be so happy when he sees the replay later. Ambrose was very lucky not to get a stop-go penalty for that incident.
He did get a stop-go penalty later in the race for another incident. His team allowed a wheel-nut to roll into the pit line during his pitstop, which is instant stop-go penalty stuff. So, one could say he was unlucky to be given a stop-go for a pit crew mistake but lucky not to be given one for hitting Ingall. Evens out I guess.
Either way, I'm going to nominate Ambrose for scoring an own goal this weekend. He should have won the round and kept the championship lead.
Oh and Waatz, I guess you're not an Ambrose fan? Evens things up around here. Too many Ambrose fans on this forum (myself included - although he's not my favourite driver, just one of them).
Skaife had a quiet weekend after the race 1 incident, but teammate Todd Kelly won the round, so not a total loss for HRT.
And Ingall, although he finished 3rd in the round, was probably the hard-luck storey for the weekend, especially after been turned around by his own team mate.
So, drivers of the weekend I'm going to give to Todd Kelly and Steven Richards equally - Kelly for doing what he had to to save face for HRT and Steven for doing what Ambrose should have done, and being consistent all weekend.
And Triple 888 once again gets the award for squandering all the promise they show in qualifying and race one and managing to instead finish well down the order. Red faces all round when Wilson's car broke its suspension at low speed on the warm up lap.

[Falcon500]

My father thinks skaife should of backed off...he should of known he would of been better off if he didnt...also he doubts that skaife was seriously naieve enough to belive that trail of shit he said....he shouldof been a man and not haveing a hissy fit on national tv.....getting past his B-pillar dictates skaife should of given raceing room...it was his fault jackass...and if he really did mean that crap he said...maybey hell learn not be as nieve as a 14 year old on a go-kart next time....
Ambrose was at fault in the second incident...i think he over reacted to bright and braked toolate...but who knows either way it took him too long....
I am not actually an ambrose fan...but you have to admit hes got it...and also hes giveing chochrin what he wants...and hes forfilling himself knowing hes trying....
Not a total loss for HRT but still they have far too much catching upto doo...and skaife will have to work so damn hard to even get into the top 10...prehaps they should swap cars all cosnidering kelly is hrts championship hope this year.....
As for squandering...that a bit rough...accidents do happen...personally i think the high low award gos to lowndes....bodge first race...5th next and stalled start the next but recoverd a bit...it was good he was slugging it to murph...and interesting thing...skaife was getting harassed by mark winterbottom for a good number of laps...i found that quite humerous....

[fpv_gtho]

Well since i never saw the incident between Skaife and Ambrose, i cant comment on how skaife should have taken it or who was at fault, but it seems Colin Bond has done his job for once and Skaife came off worse

And whats so wrong about being a fan of someone who during their F3 career was faster than someone who was challenging Schumacher for the title last year, grabbed pole position in their first V8 race, in their 3rd year SHOULD have gotten a record equalling 6 round wins in a row, and grabbed their first championship at a round where they won all races when the only 2 real competitors were struggling to keep it together???????

[motorsportnerd]

And whats so wrong about being a fan of someone who during their F3 career was faster than someone who was challenging Schumacher for the title last year, grabbed pole position in their first V8 race, in their 3rd year SHOULD have gotten a record equalling 6 round wins in a row, and grabbed their first championship at a round where they won all races when the only 2 real competitors were struggling to keep it together???????

Nothing. Note the smiley. Just glad we have at least one Holden fan to keep us Ford fans honest.

[motorsportnerd]

Well since i never saw the incident between Skaife and Ambrose, i cant comment on how skaife should have taken it or who was at fault, but it seems Colin Bond has done his job for once and Skaife came off worse...

I haven't seen or heard anything about Skaife being penalised for the collison? Just check the V8 Supercar site and nothing mentioned there. Also, didn't hear any mention of a penalty of any type for Skaife during the TV coverage? Unless I'm reading your message wrong??

[fpv_gtho]

hey, im just trying to stop anyone falling into the confusion of accusing people of blindly following the champion rather than following a terrific driver, of which Ambrose is both......

what i meant by Colin Bond doing his job was deeming it as a racing incident, as everyones saying Ambrose was past the B pillar so it was a legal move and Skaife chose not to budge so he was stuck with the end result

[motorsportnerd]

hey, im just trying to stop anyone falling into the confusion of accusing people of blindly following the champion rather than following a terrific driver, of which Ambrose is both....

Wouldn't dream of accusing you of that.

what i meant by Colin Bond doing his job was deeming it as a racing incident, as everyones saying Ambrose was past the B pillar so it was a legal move and Skaife chose not to budge so he was stuck with the end result

Fair enough, just checking in case Skaife had been fined and I'd missed it.

[fpv_gtho]

im not worried about being accused of being a blind follower, dont worry there, but theres definately people out there that are that and need to be told, and theres the unlucky few that will say theyre an SBR/Ambrose fan and get shot down and accused of following them only because they won last year. Trust me when i saw alot of Holden fans have fallen into that trap in regards to Skaife, or have started liking Holden because of Skaifes winning reign and claim they're the better manufacturer because they won more races between 1999-2002.

[Falcon500]

Well the idots reallyruin the race...thats why i really dislike f1....everyone (and even in this forums) there is an elemnt of people saying ferrari is the best no 2 ways about it...granted they are on top now but it wont last forever....