V8SDS: Decina Racing Saturday notes

LUFF TO START FROM POLE AT QUEENSLAND RACEWAY

Decina Racing's Warren Luff will start from pole position for race three of the Queensland round of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series after strong performances in today's two action packed races.

Luff finished race one in third position and then charged through the field in the reverse grid race to claim second and pole position for tomorrow's 28 lap race.

Despite a disappointing qualifying session, Luff believed the Decina Falcon had the race pace to match it with championship rivals Dean Canto and Adam Macrow and in both races today proved true to his words.

"It has been a good turnaround for us already this weekend. After what was a disappointing qualifying, to be able to come through and start from pole for race three was what we were really hoping for.

"However, we now have to capitalise on all the hard work.

"We started from pole at Wakefield and we missed out on getting the round win, but this is our home track and it is in front of the main game, so it's really a great opportunity. We just need to stay out of trouble for 28 laps and see what we can do."

The team discovered a cracked header after qualifying yesterday and with this problem addressed Luff went about the business of building championship points through both races.

An accident off the line marred race one, with a three-car pile up seeing the race red flagged before any cars entered turn one.

Dean Wanless stalled his Falcon on the starting line setting off a chain reaction, which saw the Fords of Barry Tanton and John Henderson hit the stationary car.

The red flag ended a strong start by Luff who had already passed D'Alberto and Davison down the inside, only to be returned to his original starting position for a single file rolling re start.

Showing the Decina Falcon has good race speed, Luff quickly collected D'Alberto and Holdsworth after the restart and set up chasing down fellow Ford drivers Dean Canto and Will Davison, befire eventually finishing in third.

Race two again showed why Luff is quickly making the reverse grid races his own leaping from 19th to 10th by the end of lap and pushing on quickly through the rest of the field to move into second.

All Luff's hard work almost came undone when he and Canto came together while fighting for position three quarters of the way through the 16 lap race. However, Luff moved away from the incident with minor panel damage and remained in second while Canto speared off onto the grass.

"I got a great start and leapt forward but was met with a wall of cars and nowhere to go.

"Once I got off the line I basically had to make a 50/50 call, do I go inside or outside and I quickly decided on the conservative inside approach, which in hindsight I think was the right call.

"Throughout the race I had a fading break pedal that caused a few little dramas, but the incident with Dean basically came about when I went into the corner on the inside and Dean went further inside.

"When we got there I'm not sure whether he dropped a wheel or locked up his brakes, but he hit me in the rear bar first and then skimmed along the side of me.

"But I managed to keep going and now we have pole tomorrow, so from that perspective we are happy with today but there is still plenty of work to do in race three.

Decina Racing team boss Jim Morton was also happy with the turnaround and believes a conservative approach has so far has paid dividends, but admitted it will not win a championship.

"Up until this weekend we have been playing catch up and have had to take a fairly conservative approach due to the punctures we suffered in Adelaide, which saw us on the back foot immediately.

"But strong performances at Wakefield Park and Eastern Creek have seen us get back to up to second in the championship and we always felt this was a meeting where we could start racing to win.

"So being on pole tomorrow is the result of some fantastic driving from Warren, particularly in the reverse grid race, and it is a great result for the team."

Race three of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series is 28 laps and will begin at 11.15am on Sunday.

-dr-