Brock's confidence up as he chases tenth Bathurst win

The qualifying performance of the Team Brock Commodore at last weekend's Queensland 500 has given Peter Brock extra confidence heading into next month's Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst's Mt Panorama.

Brock will be having his first V8 Supercar start since the 1997 "Great Race" and will be chasing an amazing 10th victory in one of the world's toughest touring car endurance events.

Gold Coast-based Kiwi Craig Baird turned plenty of heads when he qualified the team's car in eighth place, before successfully achieving a starting position of 10th after the top 15 shootout at Queensland Raceway at the weekend.

The car ran strongly for the first dozen or so laps before dropping a lot of horsepower after a water fitting on the engine broke and caused some overheating.

The car eventually retired on lap 48, but the team made some tremendous gains, which will be valuable at Bathurst, according to Brock who watched the race from his Victorian home.

Brock is still recovering from a back injury he received in a celebrity karting accident a month ago, but is expected to be 100 per cent by the Bathurst event on October 10-13.

"I have to say that I feel more confident about our chances (at Bathurst), than I did before last weekend's race," said Brock. "Craig's time to qualify the car in eighth place was outstanding and certainly proved we are heading in the right direction. "I am not going to predict we will win the race, but I think we will certainly be competitive. "This team is really only six months old and I think we have put together a solid platform on which to build something special. "Hopefully we can take the next step at Bathurst."

Baird was obviously happy with his qualifying performance and is also looking forward to Bathurst with added enthusiasm.

This year's Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 will be held from October 10-13 and will be the 10th round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Tickets for the event are already on sale and are available through Ticketmaster7 on 1300 136 122 or through the event's official website, www.bobjanetmarts1000.com.

-bjm-