TRACK TIMES
QUALIFYING – RACE 3
TIME: 9:40-9:50
CONDITIONS: Warm, sunny, mild winds
FINISHED: 1st - 1:12.2623
QUALIFYING – RACE 24
TIME: 10:00-10:10
CONDITIONS: Warm, sunny, mild winds
FINISHED: 2nd - 1:12.1761
POLE POSITION: Todd Hazelwood (BJR) - 1:12.1541
RACE 23 / 39 Laps
TIME: 12:10
CONDITIONS: Warm, sunny, mild winds
FINISHED: 4th
WINNER: Shane van Gisbergen
RECAP
Wow! What a lap from our man Nick, putting the R&J Batteries Commodore on pole – the first of his career in the Supercars Championship. Nick made a great start and forcefully held out Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, who soon dispatched McLaughlin. The pressure from SVG was immense, Nick using all his racecraft to hold him off until lap 8 when the RedBull driver squeezed past. Now it was all about when to stop – and for how many tyres? Nick and the R&J Batteries Team chose the late pit strategy and it wasn’t until lap 22 that car #8 came in for three tyres, rejoining in p11. Now with fresher tyres Nick was in a prime position to attack. Up to fourth with 10 laps to go, the car was good but just not quite good enough to fight for the lead and Nick brought it home in another solid p4, more points in the bag and another race to go!
RACE 24 / 39 Laps
TIME: 14:40
CONDITIONS: Warm, sunny, windy
FINISHED: 7th
WINNER: Shane van Gisbergen
RECAP
After grabbing that fantastic pole position for race 23, Nick and the R&J Batteries Commodore backed it up with a sensational p2 behind teammate Todd Hazelwood. A brilliant start from #8 and #14, both BJR cars getting frighteningly close to touching on the straight up to turn one! The R&J Batteries Commodore slotted in neatly into p2 and from there it was a case of driving cleanly and precisely to keep Mostert behind. As the race progressed it was clear though that car #8 was not quite perfect and on lap 15 Nick was passed by Mostert for second before heading in to the pits on lap 16. With all cars having pitted Nick was sitting in a comfortable p4. Lap 25 and what was a relatively clean race changed dramatically when De Pasquale hit the wall heavily, bringing out the safety car and bunching the cars up for a final 9 laps of frenetic action! It was a stirring battle, Supercars at its best, Nick holding on to p7 at the flag.
THE WORD FROM NICK
“We started strong today and both Todd and I were competitive. Thanks to the team for giving me a great car. I just unfortunately lacked speed throughout both races. Didn’t have the same pace as what Gis and Scotty had. Stoked to get the pole and the front row lockout for the team. We have fast quali cars so we just need to work on getting that pace for the race. Tyre deg was pretty bad so I struggled there at the end and didn’t have much left in them. Overall a step up for the team and something to really grow on now”
COMING UP
Repco SuperSprint The Bend
Tailem Bend, SA
19th- 20th September
