Supercars
Hamilton: Stone Brothers Friday notes
Van Gisbergen impresses home crowd with top three at Hamilton SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen has impressed his home crowd at Hamilton this afternoon, setting the third fastest time in Friday''s opening practice at the new Hamilton Street ...
Published: Apr 19, 2008, 2:38 PM
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Van Gisbergen impresses home crowd with top three at Hamilton
SP Tools Racing's Shane van Gisbergen has impressed his home crowd at Hamilton this afternoon, setting the third fastest time in Friday''s opening practice at the new Hamilton Street Circuit.
Van Gisbergen, in his first full V8 Supercar season, was quick to adapt to the new track and overshadowed many of his more experienced rivals, bettered only by Jamie Whincup and Garth Tander.
Team-mate James Courtney was also on the pace early, sitting on top of the time sheets for much of the session.
The JELD-WEN Motorsport driver looked set improve his lap time late in session after settling into the new circuit, only to be forced off track with an oil leak.
With the Stone Brothers Racing crew unable to fix the leak before the end of practice, Courtney missed the opportunity to run on green tyres and will now save them for qualifying tomorrow.
Courtney set the 14th fastest time in practice today.
Shane van Gisbergen, #9, SP Tools Racing Falcon
"It's just awesome to be in the top three today. We really didn't expect to be this quick this early.
"The SP Tools Falcon was quick out of the gate and I was able to adapt to the circuit quickly and with some minor adjustments we had a great car that was doing what I wanted.
"It's a great track, bumpy in places but that gives it character. The extra half-hour session today was a great help. With fewer cars on the circuit I had a good chance to settle into it.
"But today's only Friday and tomorrow's another day. We've got a long weekend ahead of us and we need to put in the homework tonight to make sure we keep improving tomorrow."
James Courtney, #4, JELD-WEN Motorsport
"The Hamilton circuit is really impressive. It's good fun to drive, a little more bumpy than expected but it's got some great corners.
"You can really take your car by the scruff of the neck and drag it around here and get a lot out of it.
"The JELD-WEN Falcon was very quick early today, we set a time quickly and worked hard on the car.
"We had a hiccup with an oil leak midway through the last session forcing us off the track before we had the chance to run green tyres.
"Otherwise everything is very positive and we should be quick in qualifying tomorrow."
Courtney and van Gisbergen will be on track at 11:20am today for the three-leg elimination style qualifying session, followed by race one at 4:15pm.
-credit: stone brothers
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