Surfers Paradise: Stone Brothers Racing race notes

SBR'S Besnard produces great home-race drive.

He might not have finished with a trophy in his hand, but Stone Brothers Racing's David Besnard produced a fantastic drive to finish ninth in the second heat of the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge at the Honda Indy 300 on the streets of the Gold Coast today.

In wet conditions, Besnard started from the back of the grid to finish ninth in his Caltex Havoline Ford, after the team gambled on going from wet tyres to slicks in his compulsory stop.

Rain continued to fall for the remainder of the race and while others on slicks went backwards at a fast rate, Besnard maintained his position.

With five laps to go, Besnard returned to the pit lane, changed back to wets and then fought his way from 20th up to ninth.

Besnard's SBR teammate Marcos Ambrose did the job to finish second in the opening race yesterday and set a new lap record of one minute and 51.6490 seconds along the way.

Unfortunately Ambrose only lasted three laps today when he was forced to park his Pirtek Falcon because of a mechanical problem.

Besnard started from the rear of the grid after an opening-lap incident with John Bowe ended his race yesterday.

Besnard jumped to 18th on the opening lap and was up to 13th by the end of lap three.

By the time he made his compulsory pit stop he was seventh. As he was coming into pit lane the wets were ready, but team owner Jimmy Stone decided to "roll the dice" with the slicks.

Besnard dropped back as far as 20th, but showed tremendous fight against several drivers running on wets. His only "incident" coming a couple of laps from home when he clipped a wall at Falken Corner.

The incident did some slight damage to the front suspension, but Besnard managed to maintain his spot of ninth to the flag.

"I was out there having some fun," said Besnard, who has maintained ninth position in the championship. "Unfortunately we went to slicks and had to come back in for wets for the last five laps. "The Caltex Havoline Ford was fast today and I think with a little more luck we could have finished with a lot more points. "It is a pity I did not have the chance to use both my sets of slick tyres in the dry. "Bring on New Zealand."

Ambrose, who has slipped one place in the title chase to sixth, was obviously disappointed with his day,

"It is never good when you don't finish a race," said Ambrose. "It is rare for something to break on an SBR car, so I guess that makes today even more frustrating."

The next round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series will be in New Zealand in a fortnight's time.

RACE RESULTS RACE 2
GILLETTE V8 SUPERCAR CHALLENGE
1: Jason Bargwanna (Holden) 22 Laps
2: Craig Lowndes (Ford)
3: Todd Kelly (Holden)
4: Garth Tander (Holden)
5: Tony Longhurst (Ford)
6: Paul Radisich (Ford)
7: Steve Richards (Holden)
8: Jason Richards (Holden)
9: David Besnard (Ford)
10 Steve Johnson (Ford)

RACE RESULTS RACE 1
GILLETTE V8 SUPERCAR CHALLENGE
1: Greg Murphy (Holden) 22 laps
2: Marcos Ambrose (Ford)
3: Craig Lowndes (Ford)
4: Steve Richards (Holden)
5: Jason Bargwanna (Holden)
6: Jason Bright (Holden)
7: Todd Kelly (Holden)
8: Max Wilson (Ford)
9: Paul Weel (Ford)
10: Steve Johnson (Ford)

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1: Mark Skaife (Holden) 1983
2: Jason Bright (Holden) 1290
3: Greg Murphy (Holden) 1217
4: Steve Richards (Holden) 1199
5: Tod Kelly (Holden) 1146
6: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 1133
7: Craig Lowndes (Ford) 946
8: Russell Ingall (Holden) 876
9: David Besnard (Ford) 849
10: Garth Tander (Holden) 840

-sbr-