Konica: Rupprecht Motorsport Winton summary

Rupprecht V8 Supercars Battle Scarred at Winton

With two of the three Falcons crashed out of Race 2 (of 3) it was a miserable weekend for the Rupprecht Motorsport team at Round 3 of the Konica Minolta V8 Supercar Series, held at Victoria's Winton Raceway. The good news is that the sole surviving car #80 driven by Adelaide's Adam Wallis survived all three races, and Adam remains in the top ten of the Series point score.

Despite some average results in Saturday's qualifying session, the cars went well in Race 1 with all three drivers picking up positions from the qualifying order. Phil Scifleet in the red Doric Falcon #90 finished 11th, Adam Wallis in car #89 finished 16th, with Series rookie Stephen White not far behind in 18th position.

Race 2, the reverse grid event, was marred with incidents and two of the Rupprecht cars were crashed out for the day in separate incidents.

Phil Scifleet was working his way through the field and had just made it into third position when disaster struck. Some oil on the track may have caused a bit of movement, but for no apparent reason he was struck from behind by Brad Tilley in the Speed FX Racing car, which caused Phil to crash into the wall, resulting in a substantial amount of damage.

"We have racing incidents which are part of the sport, but Phil was just punted into the wall and it shouldn't have happened", said team boss, Ralf Rupprecht.

"Why me", said a visibly upset Phil Scifleet. "This is the third time in three Rounds that I have been punted out or run into someone else's mess. It can only get better from here".

The #55 car driven for the first time this weekend by Stephen White also came to grief in Race 2 after being hit by Team Fujitsu's Owen Kelly -- who went on to win the race. He was running in 8th position at the time and had made room for Kelly, but the cars collided and it caused a substantial amount of body and steering damage."Just before the crash it was the best the car felt all weekend", said Stephen White. "I was still feeling my way in Race 1, and during the second race I was feeling really confident in the car, then I was thumped out of the race."

Stephen has been racing in the UK for the last six years and returned home last week to land himself a V8 Supercar drive.

"Every time Stephen got into the car he got quicker and quicker", said Ralph Rupprecht. "He is a very good driver and I was really pleased with what he did".

Never a strong qualifier in his #89 AU Falcon, quiet achiever Adam Wallis has a reputation for consistency and his ability to work his way through the front of the pack. His reputation was again enhanced this weekend. In Race 1 he started in 23rd position and finished 16th. As expected, he took full advantage of the reverse grid in Race 2 to finish 8th. This race was to prove significant, as it has kept him in the top ten of the Series points. In Race 3 he was the sole survivor at the wheel of a Rupprecht Motorsport car, and he put in a very solid performance to finish 13th.

The 'biff and bash' at the front of the pack has skewed the points chart for the Series in Adams favour and again a consistent performance has kept him in the familiar 8th position overall at the halfway mark in the Series.

-rm-