Sports Sedan Championship Queensland race one report

National Australian Sports Sedan Association
Race One - Round Four
Australian Sports Sedan Championship

Thriller Race Goes To Baily

In a highly entertaining race that went all the way to the wire, Kerry Baily in his Nissan 300ZX/Chev edged out Tony Riccardello in a similarly powered Alfa Romeo to win the first of two races constituting the fourth round of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship.

Held at Queensland Raceway in conjunction with the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship's Queensland 500, Baily made a tentative start to the 12-lap event, slipping to fourth place as Ricciardello stormed away in front. Steven Voight in a Honda Prelude/Chev slotted into second place ahead of Daniel Jameson's Jaguar/Chev.

With the Ford Falcon of Phil Crompton spinning halfway through the opening lap, Baily began to claw his way back towards the front. Behind, Mick Monterosso had a great start but the Chev engine of his Ford Escort died near the pit entry and unintentionally caused the Calibra/Chev of Mark Stinson to lose many places.

Shortly after Jameson passed Voight for second but an "off" and a tyre delamination ultimately put him out of race business. Baily then progressed to second and slowly hauled in the race leader. The pair then engaged in a gripping dice for supremacy with the lead changing on several occasions.

In the end Baily snared the win by less than half a second and claimed a new lap record in the process. During the course of the race two cars had fires extinguished due to fires with one of them, the Escort or Sean English losing a wheel and brake assembly.

As with the lead there was an equally entertaining dice for third between Voight and the Saab/Chev of Dean Randle with the latter getting the upper hand in the concluding laps. The Commodore of Tony Wilson maintained a tidy race for fifth while Stinson fought back well for sixth.

The second race is scheduled for noon Sunday August 26 and will feature the top ten finishers from today's event starting in reverse order. <pre>

RESULT SATURDAY August 25, 2001 Race One (12 laps) 1 Kerry Baily (Tas) Nissan 300ZX/Chev 14:18.0144, 2 Tony Ricciardello (WA) Alfa Chev 14:18.5012, 3 Dean Randle (Vic) Saab 9.3 Aero/Chev 14:37.6388, 4 Stephen Voight (Qld) Honda Prelude/Chev 14:47.6115, 5 Tony Wilson (NSW) Commodore VS/Chev 14:48.8967, 6 Mark Stinson (NSW) Holden Calibra/Chev 14:57.5768, 7 Ivan Mikac (ACT) Mazda RX7 15:10.6674, 8 Phil Crompton (Qld) Ford Falcon 15:31.6799, 9 Chris Fing (Qld) Chev Monza 11 laps 14:23.4174, 10 Charlie Senese (Qld) Ford Falcon 11 laps 14:38.9280, 11 Warren Smith (Qld) Rover Vitesse/Chev 11 laps, 12 Gian Meneguzzo (Qld) BMW E30 11 laps, 13 Scott Hunter (Qld) Toyota Corolla 11 laps, 14 Anton Abramovic (ACT) Mazda RX7 10 laps, 15 Reeve Kruck (Qld) Ford Escort 10 laps, DNF Adam Uebergang (Qld) Ford Escort/Rotary 8 laps, DNF Mick Monterosso (SA) Ford Escort/Chev 8 laps, DNF Daniel Jameson (NSW) Jaguar XKR/Chev 6 laps, DNF Brad Seagrove (Qld) Alfa Sprint/Rotary 5 laps, DNF Gary Hamilton (Qld) Datsun 1000/Rotary 5 laps, DNF Sean English (Qld) Ford Escort/Rotary 1 lap, DNF Brett Curran (Qld) Ford Capri 1 lap. Fastest lap: Kerry Baily 1:09.9532 (new lap record).

WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE Friday, August 24, 2001 - 8:30 am PRACTICE - 10:50 am QUALIFYING Saturday, August 25, 2001 - 12.20 QUALIFYING - 2:45 pm RACE ONE (12 laps) Sunday, August 26, 2001 - 8:35 am WARM-UP - 12 noon RACE TWO (12 laps)

CURRENT POINTS (after round four race one) 1-Tony Ricciardello Alfa Romeo GTV/Chev 136 2-Tony Wilson Commodore VS/Chev 107 3-Kerry Baily Nissan 300ZX/Chev 103 4-Ivan Mikac Mazda RX7/20B Rotary 88 5-Mark Stinson Holden Calibra/Chev 86 6-Dean Randle Saab/Chev 83 7-Stephen Voight Honda Prelude/Chev 77 8-Jeff Barnes Pontiac/Chev 65 9-Barry Jameson Jaguar XKR/Chev 46 10-Trent Young Toyota Levin/Toyota Turbo 36 11-Phil Crompton Ford Falcon EB/Ford 29 12-Mark Duggan Holden Calibra/Chev 25 13-Terry Sheil Mazda RX7/Nissan Turbo 18

CALENDAR Round 4- August 24-26, Queensland Raceway Round 5- November 2-December 30, Sandown

-ASSA-