CAT Racing Oran Park qualifying

Cat Racing's John Bowe fought his way into the top ten with a strong performance in qualifying today for round eight of the Shell Championship Series at Sydney's Oran Park Raceway.

Bowe was eighth fastest at the end of qualifying after being 16th in the opening session and 12th in the final practice run.

"We worked very hard on improving the car today and it is quite gratifying to make some strong progress," Bowe said.

"Everybody in the team has done a great job and put us in a reasonable position to attack from tomorrow."

Bowe was unfortunate not to improve in the top ten after oil was dropped on the circuit at the end of the qualifying session for the bottom 50 per cent of car.

"There was quite a bit of oil on the road and the marshals spread "oil dry" everywhere to soak it up," Bowe said.

"Unfortunately, the "oil dry" was probably just as slippery as the oil itself and the first few cars in the top ten really suffered. We basically acted as road sweepers.

"But despite this, it is still pleasing to break back into the top ten after missing the cut in the past couple of rounds."

Bowe is confident of a strong showing tomorrow for the Queensland-based Briggs Motorsport team.

"It will be great to get back into the pit-stop races tomorrow because I believe they have been a great addition to our championship," Bowe said.

"Traditionally, our team has performed better in the longer races and position eight gives us a strong base to work from.

"This category is incredibly tough - look at Paul Morris, he was the winner at the last round and this week he is back in 23rd spot.

"There is only one second covering the first 27 cars on the grid. When I made my touring car debut, I was 7/10th of a second off pole and I started from position three! Times have certainly changed."

<pre> TOP TEN SHOOT-OUT 1. - Lowndes (Ford) - 1:08.067 2. - Skaife (Holden) - 1:08.229 3. - Besnard (Ford) - 1:08.655 4. - Kelly (Holden) - 1:08.793 5. - Johnson (Ford) - 1:08.843 6. - Ingall (Holden) - 1:08.999 7. - Bright (Holden) - 1:09.088 8. - BOWE (CAT FORD) - 1:09.630 9. - Tander (Holden) - 1:09.716 10. - McConville (Holden) - 1:09.785

PROGRAM SUNDAY, JULY 29 10.00am - Warm-up 11.30am - Race One - 36 laps 3.00pm - Race Two - 36 laps

-Paul Ryan