Round Wrap Up: 2012 Sydney Motorsport Park 360

The team headed to NSW to the revamped and refreshed Eastern Creek Raceway, newly named Sydney Motorsport Park.

Saturday 25th August

The day began with two practice sessions, finishing 17th and 20th. Although David’s times dropped by nearly half a second in the 2nd session he found himself three places further back.

Qualifying

David started the session on the hard compound tyre to warm up the car and brakes and then made the change to the soft compound tyre. A time of 1:30:25 saw him jump to 2nd with 5 mins remaining in the session. As always the run in the last few minutes saw others produce their best times dropping David back to 19th, still his best qualifying for the year to date.

Coulthard 14th, Bright 17th and Reindler 27th.

Qualifying Results:

1. Whincup.
2. Webb.
3. Davidson.
4. Caruso.
5. Winterbottom
6. Lowndes.
7. Reynolds.
8. Van Gisbergen.
9. D’Alberto.
10. Ingall

Race18

Starting from 19th, David was slow to get away and dropped back to 24th. Running on the hard compound tyre he pitted on lap 21, refueling and changing to the soft tyre he reentered in position 25.

Battling with Moffat during the final 10 laps for 19th and 20th, there were a number of position changes before David nailed 19th on lap 32. Taking another position off Whincup on the final lap, David finished 18th.

Bright 10th, Coulthard 12th and Reindler

Race 18 Results:

1. Lowndes.
2. Winterbottom.
3. Davison.
4. Tander.
5. Ingall
6. Courtney.
7. Webb.
8. Caruso.
9. Van Gisbergen.
10. Bright

David Wall – Driver WSR Car #21

“Our biggest problem today was the start. The lights seemed to be on forever and when they finally went off the clutch just went to the floor. I was stranded, just trying not to stall in front of everyone. We lost all our good work from qualifying in one millisecond and ended up finishing one place better than we started, but we got that the hard way.”

Sunday 25th August

The day kicked off with a mid morning practice session. David finished just outside the top ten in P11 and was looking forward to qualifying.

David raced into the top ten early in qualifying and was one of the first drivers to give the soft tyres a serious run. A time of 1:30:22 placed him top of the tables with 8 minutes to go in the 20 minute session and he eventually dropped to 20th.

Qualifying Results:

1. Lowndes.
2. Whincup.
3. Bright.
4. Winterbottom.
5. Davison
6. Caruso.
7. Tander.
8. Ingall.
9. Reynolds.
10. Coulthard

Race 19

Starting from 20th, David made an awesome start but unfortunately, and possibly after a little shall we say encouragement from behind, David tagged the car in front shredding a tyre and forcing an unscheduled pit stop.

Rejoining in 28th and virtually 2 laps down David circulated on a set of not so good tyres till lap 28 when he pitted for fuel and crossed over the left rear and right front tyres.

Believe it or not when you are having a bad day things can still get worse, stalling as he exited his pit bay, David again rejoined in, you guessed it, 28th.

A disappointing end to a very promising day for David finishing 28th and 4 laps down but a much more promising finish for the other WSR backed cars of Coulthard, Bright and Reindler finishing 6th, 8th and 25th respectively.

Race 19 Results:

1. Whincup.
2. Lowndes.
3. Winterbottom.
4. Ingall.
5. Davison
6. Coulthard.
7. Reynolds.
8. Bright.
9. Tander.
10. Courtney

David Wall – Driver WSR Car #21

“I had a really good start but the field compressed in the middle of turn one. I jumped on the brake to avoid Steven Johnson and it sent me to the right, which is where Tim Slade was. I ended up cutting a tyre and it started deflating and I had to pit.”

Championship Standings:

1. Winterbottom. 2108

2. Whincup. 2088

3. Davison. 2005

4. Lowndes. 1946

5. Van Gisbergen. 1568

6. Tander. 1433

7. Slade. 1401

8. Coulthard. 1330

9. Holdsworth. 1244

10. Courtney. 1091

Bright. 13th. 1059

Reindler. 24th. 623

Wall. 25th. 598

A really tough finish to a very promising weekend but putting aside Sundays race result and taking away the positives the team are heading to the first of the endurance rounds at Sandown in 3 weeks time with great race pace, improved starts and consistently improving results in qualifying and races.