Hamilton: Team IntaRacing Saturday notes

Disappointment strikes Team IntaRacing in Hamilton

After recording their highest qualifying position since entering the V8 Supercar Series, disaster has struck Team IntaRacing at the Hamilton 400 with Marcus Marshall forced to retire from the opening race of the event due to an engine failure following a heavy impact with a tyre bundle.

Earlier in the day Marshall recorded Team IntaRacing's best qualifying result since the newly formed team entered the 2009 V8 Supercar Series with the #77 Falcon inside the top five for the opening leg of qualifying. Marshall then started the race from row eight after finishing the second leg of qualifying 15th on the timesheets.

The Team IntaRacing driver made a solid start to the race until misfortune struck the #77 Falcon on lap eight when a wayward Jack Perkins tagged him on the restart of the first safety car period and dropped him down the order to 20th.

Marshall recorded a number of consistent laps throughout the race and attempted to fight his way through the pack until lap 54 when the car dramatically clipped a tyre barrier causing extensive damage to the Team IntaRacing Falcon.

"I clipped the tyre barrier in an ugly fashion and unluckily the front of the car folded underneath itself and caused some major damage to the engine -- I thought that I would be able to limp the car back into the pits but unfortunately it didn't quite make it with the engine stopping on the entry into pitlane," Marshall said.

"It was extremely disappointing as we had a good car during practice and qualifying and after the incident early in the race it was just a matter of trying to fight my way through the field. We recorded a good pit stop but unfortunately we just couldn't make an impression on the front running guys," he added.

Team IntaRacing Manager, Keith Evers said the crew will replace the engine of the #77 Falcon overnight to ensure that Marshall can take to the track again for qualifying at 1.00pm tomorrow.

"The car went head first into the tyre barrier, smashing the bar which went up into the oil pump belt. We lost oil pressure and it caused quite a lot of damage to the engine," Evers said.

"The car showed a lot of potential earlier in the day and unfortunately the incident during the opening phase of the race never really provided us with the chance to show how good the package was. However, tomorrow is a new day and the crew will work together to replace the engine overnight to ensure that Marcus [Marshall] can take to the grid again tomorrow."

Yesterday Team IntaRacing announced Fisher and Paykel would sponsor the car for the Hamilton 400 after their major sponsor, Access Cash closed earlier in the week.

The final race of the Hamilton 400 will commence at 2.35pm tomorrow.

-credit: intar