V8SDS: Drew Russell Winton race one report

Hard Charger Drew Russell Bounces Back in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series

Today's opening race of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series round at Winton Raceway in Victoria saw very little overtaking throughout the field The exception was Drew Russell's charge through the field from second last to finish in 17th position.

The weekend got off to an excellent start for Drew and the Novocastrian Motorsport team, setting the 11th fastest time in the first practice session on Friday morning.

Because of this outstanding result, Drew ran in the top 50% qualifying session on Saturday morning. Drew qualified in 21st place, closing the time gap between him and the front-runners by almost half a second.

Race 1 got off to a nightmare start for Drew when he was forced to go straight on in turn one, dropping back to second last position.

Drew fought back hard, charging through the field from 26th to 17th place by lap eleven. At this stage in the race, Drew faced a massive gap between him and 16th position. He pushed hard in the remaining laps to close the gap to finish just 0.3 of a second behind Brett Holdsworth when he crossed the finish line.

During the race, Drew set a fastest lap time significantly quicker than his nearest rivals and was just 1.7 seconds off the race winner, further closing the gap between him and the race winner.

Drew and his team are looking forward to picking up where they left off in tomorrow's second race.

-credit: dr