Supercars
Bathurst 1000: TeamVodafone Saturday notes
TeamVodafone to start the Bathurst 1000 from the front row of the grid Defending Bathurst Champions, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup will start tomorrow's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from the front row of the grid after Lowndes set the ...
Edited: Oct 11, 2009, 1:25 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
TeamVodafone to start the Bathurst 1000 from the front row of the grid
Defending Bathurst Champions, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup will start tomorrow's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from the front row of the grid after Lowndes set the second fastest time in today's top ten shootout.
Lowndes, who was given qualifying duties for this years' race set a time of 2:08.2231 on a drying track, after a deluge early in the afternoon almost produced a wet shootout.
The TeamVodafone driver made little error as he negotiated the 6.2km circuit in difficult conditions and was the biggest mover in the shootout, gaining four places on his qualifying result.
"Thankfully the track dried quicker than we thought it would, but there were still some damp patches across the top," Lowndes said.
"I am really happy with where we are starting especially considering the conditions in which we did the lap. The car was a lot better than we thought it would be.
"We softened the front slightly before the shootout which make it a lot nicer and we will now look at making it more tyre friendly for tomorrow race," he continued.
Earlier in the day the duo used the hour long practice session to refine their race package for tomorrow's 161 lap race.
"Craig did a fantastic job today," Whincup said. "To be honest I didn't think we had the qualifying pace to put it on pole so to be starting second and off the front row is a very very good result.
"Looking on from the garage and knowing Craig was on a half wet half dry track actually made me quite nervous.
"It is going to be a long day tomorrow," Whincup added. "We have a great race car that we are both comfortable in so we will just do the best job possible and hope we are in the mix when the race really starts 20 laps from the end."
After qualifying 17th yesterday car 88 pilots Allan Simonsen and James Thompson had a relatively quiet day with Thompson taking advantage of the hour long session to get some more miles under his belt.
"It was great to finally get in some good consistent laps," Thompson explained. " I feel a little more comfortable with the circuit now.".
"The car is good and both Allan and I are happy with our race package.
"Allan will start tomorrow's race and the plan is we will try and swap every hour. The main aim is to stay on the lead lap and out of trouble," he added.
The 2009 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 will commence at 10.30am (AEDST) following a 20 minute warm-up at 8.00am (AEDST).
-credit: tv
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Utes: Series Bathurst Thursday notes
Next article Bathurst 1000: FPR Friday notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jamie Whincup
Whincup against "outrageous" Bathurst parity changes
Supercars
Supercars
Whincup against "outrageous" Bathurst parity changes
Whincup comeback an "awesome fallback" for Triple Eight
Supercars
Supercars
Eastern Creek
Whincup comeback an "awesome fallback" for Triple Eight
Triple Eight expands international GT programme
GT World Challenge Australia
GT World Challenge Australia
Triple Eight expands international GT programme
Latest news
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 45 min
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 1 h
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 1 h
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 1 h
Bourdais, Moss headline second batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe