Stone Brothers Racing Narrowly Miss Podium At Winton

Shane-van-Gisbergen-and-Tim-Slade-at-Winton

In another thrilling day of racing Stone Brothers Racing’s three drivers have all finished in the top ten in Race 28 at Winton with Shane van Gisbergen and Tim Slade narrowly missing out on the podium, crossing the line in 4th and 5th respectively.

The weather looked set to play havoc with today’s racing with a short but heavy downfall of rain shortly before Qualifying. It quickly passed and the sun reappeared drying up any earlier evidence of water. Lee Holdsworth Qualified his #4 IRWIN Racing Falcon the quickest of the SBR teams in 10th, with van Gisbergen Qualifying in 11th and Slade in 19th.

On the opening lap of the race Holdsworth was bumped and went off the track. There was minimal damage to the car and Holdsworth did not require a stop, but when he exited the gravel trap to re-joined the race he was in last place. While Holdsworth was disappointed he was not deterred and for the remainder of the race chipped away at making his way back towards the front of the field. Two good pit stops by the IRWIN crew helped Lee recover and he crossed the finish line in 10th place.

The #9 SP Tools Racing team and the #47 Lucky 7 Racing team have made a habit of battling each other for positions in races, and today was no different. Van Gisbergen made an early pit stop in the race but had made his way into 3rd place after a safety car on lap 15 saw most of the field pit while he stayed out.

On lap 34 van Gisbergen was starting to lose grip as his tyres were going off and he dropped one place to 4th. Slade was one of the fastest cars on the track and after making a number of quick passes had managed to position himself one place behind his teammate in 5th. Slade struggled to pass but moved into 4th when van Gisbergen pitted.

The Lucky 7 team lost some time when a right rear wheel nut jammed during his pit stop on lap 40 so when he re-joined the race he found himself a number of places back behind van Gisbergen. In a similar repeat of earlier events, the two found themselves one position apart again in 3rd and 4th with just 11 laps to go. Slade fought hard but couldn’t pass.

Whincup closed in on the two and managed to overtake them both with just three laps to go, taking with him the chance of third on the podium for SBR.

On the V8 Supercars Championship table the SBR driver’s positions remain unchanged with van Gisbergen in 5th, Slade in 6th and Holdsworth in 8th.

Ross Stone, Team Principal:

“It was obvious today that Tim had a really quick car, but internally at SBR they are free to race as long as they don’t touch one another.”

“Shane was marginal on fuel and unfortunately we had lost telemetry on the number nine car so we were flying blind and just relying on Shane to tell us about fuel use. It was a huge risk for him to try and maintain position against speed and fuel use, but that’s the way it rolls sometimes.”

“I think anytime you are in the top ten is good, but having all three cars is really good. I didn’t think it was going to be possible when Lee was dead set last after, he thinks it was Premat, sent him off.”

“So I didn’t think it would be possible, but all in all everyone got their head down and we got a solid result.”

Winton Race 28 – RESULTS:

1 888 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes 01:38:39.4858
2 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Mark Winterbottom 01:38:45.2975
3 1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup 01:38:48.1383
4 9 SP Tools Racing Shane Van Gisbergen 01:38:55.3215
5 47 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade 01:38:56.5361

6 8 Team BOC Jason Bright 01:38:56.9031
7 19 Tekno Autosports Jonathon Webb 01:38:59.4021
8 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team David Reynolds 01:39:02.0173
9 66 Supercheap Auto Racing Russell Ingall 01:39:04.4955
10 4 Irwin Racing Lee Holdsworth 01:39:07.7566

Winton Race Qualifying – RESULTS:
1 1 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup 1:22.7970
2 6 Trading Post FPR Ford Will Davison 1:22.8229
3 5 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Mark Winterbottom 1:22.8476
4 888 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes 1:23.0228
5 19 Tekno Autosports Jonathon Webb 1:23.0499
6 8 Team BOC Jason Bright 1:23.0952
7 55 The Bottle-O Racing Team David Reynolds 1:23.1129
8 34 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso 1:23.1636
9 14 Lockwood Racing Fabian Coulthard 1:23.1640
10 4 Irwin Racing Lee Holdsworth 1:23.1845
11 9 SP Tools Racing Shane Van Gisbergen 1:23.2159
19 47 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade 1:23.5243