Almost two years since its last win (Bathurst 1000, 2011), clever tyre strategy saw the factory Holden Racing Team claim an emphatic 1-2 in yesterday’s V8 Supercar Championship race in Townsville, QLD. Lead driver Garth Tander slowed on the last lap to allow team-mate James Courtenay to catch-up for a ‘photo-opp’ greeting of the chequered flag with both HRT Commodores together.
A good crowd of North Queenslanders was on-hand for the race, but reflecting what is the major sporting story in that part of the world this week, both HRT Commodores carried the colours of the NRL State-Of-Origin sides (QLD Maroons for Tander and the NSW Blues for Courtenay).
Incredibly, the Sunday race was an exact opposite of Saturday’s 70-lapper which saw both the factory FPV Falcons 1-2 with Will Davison first and Mark Winterbottom second.
So as the teams head to the next championship race in Ipswich, the head of the points table is a perfect scenario for a two-make series with the first four Commodore, Commodore, Falcon, Falcon. That would be the Red Bull duo of Jamie Whinchup and Craig Lowndes ahead of the Pepsi Max crew of Davison and Winterbottom – V8 racing must be thirsty work!
Problem is, under the 2013 ‘Car Of The Future’ regulations, the V8s are no longer a two-make series with Nissan and AMG now also in the mix with seven cars between them. The Nissan Altimas have shown a pleasing turn of straight-line speed in recent races but the AMGs are still not especially fast and seemingly fragile (an overheating problem still plaguing the glorious sounding German-built Erebus Racing machines).
The master stroke behind Holden’s bounce-back 1-2 yesterday was a clever interpretation of the tyre rules which required all teams to run one set of soft tyres and one set of hard compound tyres in the 70-lap race. With the soft Dunlop tyres showing impressive durability, most teams opted for a mid-race stop to swap rubber and re-fuel.
Holden actually chose to stop three times and in the last stop fitted a mixture of new and old tyres. This meant tyre degradation was less of an issue and allowed them to run Tander and Courtenay with smaller fuel loads which meant faster lap times.
Smart thinking as the rules stipulated a minimum of one set of soft tyres and one set of hard tyres but said nothing about more than one set.
It must be said the V8 Supercar racing on both days was less than sparkling with little overtaking.
Unless you were young Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen in yesterday’s race.
‘The Gis’ was punted into a spin in the first corner on the first lap, but a storming come-back drive in his VIP Petfoods Holden Commodore netted third place – albeit some way behind second-placed Courtenay.
Saturday’s race-winner Will Davison went the wrong way with car set-up on Sunday and struggled into 10th place in his factory-backed FPV Falcon.
And that was the story of the weekend – what is the future of the Ford teams in the championship?
Ford Australia says motorsport in part of the company DNA and has been a major contributor to its brand image and sales over the decades. After his race win on Saturday, Davison spoke to the media and passionately pleaded with Ford to stick with its V8 Supercars program.
With its closure of local manufacturing confirmed for 2016, no-one could blame Ford management for being focused on issues bigger than motorsport at the moment. But that’s Monday to Friday; racing happens on the weekend and it was noted that not one executive from Ford Australia made the trip to Townsville to see their own race team post an impressive 1-2 result on Saturday.
