Bathurst 1000: Kelly Racing qualifying report

BARGWANNA AND SETON TO START BATHURST FROM 19TH PLACE

Rock Racing drivers Jason Bargwanna and Glenn Seton will start the Supercheap Auto 1000 from 19th place on the grid after solid drive by Bargwanna in qualifying at the Mount Panorama circuit today.

Both drivers have shown strong race pace and consistency aboard the #11 Rock Commodore this weekend, but Bargwanna was unable to extract maximum speed from the car on new tyres in qualifying trim.

With a long 161-lap race ahead on Sunday, the veterans are confident of an impressive performance in the 2010 edition of The Great Race.

Stratco Racing driver Tony Ricciardello qualified in 28th position in Bathurst today, sharing Bargwanna's frustration with lack of gain out of new tyres.

Ricciardello and co-driver Taz Douglas will make further refinements to the #11 Stratco Commodore tomorrow in Practice 6 in the morning ahead of Sunday's race.

Jason Bright qualified on provisional pole today ahead of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

KELLY RACING QUOTEBOARD:

JASON BARGWANNA - #11 Rock Holden Commodore

"I'm a little disappointed with our qualifying position because I thought we would be more competitive," said Jason Bargwanna.

"The car is obviously quite strong on old tyres but when we put the green ones on, combined with the temperatures coming up so much, we just lot a little bit of an edge.

"We're only talking about three tenths of a second over a two minute lap and a six kilometre track. But that's what it is and that's the game.

"It makes it different in qualifying with all the lead drivers in there cars. Being in the top 10 is a very difficult thing to achieve.

"But we are still happy with the race pace of the Rock Commodore. On old tyres the car is still doing low 2min9sec lap times. Even on green tyres we are struggling to get much of a better time out of it so from a race point of view we are still both very confident."

TONY RICCIARDELLO - #16 Stratco Holden Commodore

"Our first run on older tyres was actually quite good," said Tony Ricciardello.

"The Stratco car felt like it had a lot of potential but we didn't get the fain from the new tyres that we wanted.

"We also came up on traffic on two of our faster laps but that's a story a lot of drivers can tell.

"For us the main thing is to get a consistent race pace going on Sunday and we are confident that we can get that.

"Tomorrow we have another opportunity to improve the car and improve our pace so we will work hard overnight for that session."

-source: kelly racing