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00:00In 2013 the V8 supercars have criss-crossed the globe to bring you the best racing on record.
00:10The Gears is the Clipsal champion of 2013.
00:15From the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, we headed south to Tasmania.
00:21Fabian Coulthard wins the 60-60 race at Simmons Plains.
00:26From Tassie, it was across the ditch to Auckland.
00:30There's a new kid in town in the V8 supercars. His name is Scott McLaughlin. He's on the champions list.
00:36Then way back west to Barbagello in Perth.
00:40The People's Champion today becomes the all-time race winner. Craig Lowell's 91 career victories.
00:48And then the Long Haul to Longhorn Territory for the Austin 400 in Texas.
00:54That's a Texan triple for Jamie Winkowski.
00:58Now, back on home soil, we're in the top end for the Sky City Triple Crown from Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin.
01:06Great play, great play.
01:08Keep your eye on the prize, buddy.
01:10It is time to let them loose in the top end.
01:14Now forward for it.
01:16Unbelievable.
01:18Wild stuff.
01:19We're all into it here.
01:20This is hot.
01:21We've covered more than 45,000 kilometres.
01:25It's the biggest road trip in Australian sport.
01:27There's no need to pack your bags because you have the best seat in the house.
01:32The teammates actually come up the inside.
01:35Unbelievable restart.
01:37Tagged.
01:38The V8 supercars live and free right here on 7.
01:46Sure has been a long haul, but it's been a lot of fun.
01:49And the top end has turned it on again.
01:51This is the 16th year of the Sky City Triple Crown.
01:54Guaranteed great weather and great crowds around here.
01:57And Hidden Valley Raceway is a place where anything can happen.
02:00And in our first race of the weekend, yesterday, well, everything did.
02:05Hi, everybody.
02:05I'm Matt White.
02:06Welcome to the V8 supercars on 7.
02:08Day 2 of the Sky City Triple Crown.
02:11And today it's races 18 and 19 of the championship.
02:14But it has been a busy night here in Pit Lane with most of the crews cleaning up after a chaotic 60-60 super sprint race yesterday.
02:23Taken out by Jamie Wincup, by the way.
02:25Alongside me, Mark Scaife and Neil Crumpton, as always.
02:27Boys, everybody is talking about yesterday.
02:30It was crazy out there.
02:31It was amazing.
02:32I left here about 9 o'clock last night.
02:34Bits scattered from one end of the pit lane to the other.
02:36It was a wild day at the office, Scophey.
02:38Wild at the office.
02:38It was out of control, wasn't it?
02:40There was some very, very good quality racing.
02:41Let's have a look at the highlights because the start was very even between Dave Reynolds on pole position and Wincup.
02:47Wincup had a little move then.
02:49Got it stopped.
02:50And then the two of them got away right together.
02:52Wincup slight advantage.
02:55And Reynolds dives down the inside.
02:57Doesn't get that done.
02:58He should have made that move around the outside as his teammate.
03:01But Wincup, uncharacteristic mistake.
03:04Runs wide at turn 6.
03:05And young Dave Reynolds gets across in front for turn 7 and makes a very bold move.
03:11That was a great maneuver.
03:12And that set the race up for Dave Reynolds.
03:15A lot of smoke coming from the back of the Nissan Altima of Rick Kelly.
03:19He went on to finish the day in a great fifth position.
03:21And then there was some contact.
03:23Tim Slade with Alex Premmer.
03:24We're on board now with Premmer.
03:26Have a look at this.
03:30Bang.
03:31That's turn 5.
03:32And he turned Slade around.
03:34Slade went on to finish the day very, very well.
03:36There was a good battle between the teammates.
03:38Mark Winterbottom was held up for too long behind Davison.
03:41Lowndes fires down the inside of Coulthard.
03:43That set up a great battle between Fabian Coulthard and Shane Van Gisberger.
03:48Check this out.
03:48Van Gisberger down the inside.
03:50They make contact on the exit.
03:52Giz pushes him wide.
03:54Runs him into the dirt.
03:56Down the inside comes Coulthard.
03:58We're on board now with Fabian.
04:00Watch this.
04:00Bang.
04:01He goes there.
04:02And watch Bright.
04:03There goes Bright.
04:04Two spots.
04:05Very, very good manoeuvre.
04:06And a very healthy battle between those guys for the rest of the race.
04:09Great result for those guys.
04:11Dave Reynolds.
04:11A career-defining moment.
04:13Then we go to half-time.
04:15Controversial incident when they put dry ice in Jamie's car on the grid.
04:19But he was given approval by the category technical manager.
04:22This is the battle of Turn 1.
04:23We didn't think Jamie could get this job done.
04:25But he did on the outside.
04:26And that was critical because he led them into Turn 5.
04:30And that was the move that gave him track position over David Reynolds.
04:33And look further back.
04:36And you can see in about fourth or fifth place, Craig Lowndes gets into the back of Garth Tander.
04:40And that triggers chaos up in the valley.
04:44The reaction at Red Bull Racing Australia.
04:47Here we are on board.
04:51Bang.
04:52That was Courtney into the back of Lowndes.
04:54Who by that stage had already been into the back of Tander.
04:59Look at that.
04:59It was just absolute chaos.
05:04And then, I mean, you could spend the whole evening here going through everyone's tail of wire.
05:08Now, this car ended up with a radiator hose plucked off it.
05:11And so it spat all the water out.
05:13And that was the reason why Will went off down at the bottom there in the Pepsi Max entry.
05:16Problem also for Tim Blanchard.
05:18We had a safety car.
05:19Out came the Chrysler Pedder's STP safety car.
05:22Ripping race restart for Jamie Winkup.
05:24But David Reynolds didn't get the call.
05:27That was the reason why there was such a gap.
05:29It was 1.2 seconds in the end of the first lap.
05:31Big battle going on here as Mark Winterbottom tried to get through on David Reynolds.
05:35So this is an inter-team battle.
05:37And ultimately, Frosty was very, very frustrated and couldn't get it done.
05:41They were allowing Shane Van Gisbergen to get in there.
05:43James Small, the engineer for Mark Winterbottom, was very cranky about it.
05:47And watch this.
05:47Up the inside.
05:48A move on the dirty side of the road.
05:50Locked the rear brakes for Mark Winterbottom.
05:52He hits his teammate, David Reynolds.
05:54Turns him around.
05:55Tim Edwards, team principal.
05:57Not happy about what he was seeing.
05:59Race control giving Mark Winterbottom a penalty and a drive-through as a result.
06:03Win number seven this year for Jamie.
06:04Career win number 71.
06:06Seven guys out there enjoying their best run of the season, Matty.
06:09Craig Lowndes being highlighted because the gap is now 239 points.
06:13Lowndes pinged 15 points for that contact with Garth Tander.
06:16Jason Bright moves up to third at the expense of Will Davison.
06:19And Fabian Coulthard drops down to fifth as well.
06:22Another 200 points on offer across the two races today.
06:26He's the man to catch.
06:27A big day ahead.
06:28Two qualifying sessions and two races in this heat.
06:31There's Fabian Coulthard.
06:32Craig Lowndes.
06:33Mistakes have been costly so far.
06:36John O'Webb.
06:36Great run for Techno Autosports.
06:38They're on the podium with Shane Van Gisbergen.
06:40And Davey Reynolds, had pole position, is still searching for his first career win.
06:45And is today the day for qualifying is coming up right after this?
06:49It is qualifying time now on a clear sky Sunday here in Darwin.
07:13The track about 12km just south of the city centre.
07:16First years back in 1998.
07:21Lots of corporate support.
07:23And they love coming here because it's a great vantage point pretty much all the way around.
07:27So maximum temperature today, 30 degrees.
07:30A little bit cooler than yesterday.
07:32And the question is, what will unfold today?
07:34There was a lot of drama in pit lane.
07:36A lot of damage left behind as we've detailed.
07:38There are plenty of scores to settle.
07:40But Neil, they've got to forget about all that because everything changes again today.
07:43It's reset mode.
07:44That's the beauty of the business.
07:46And they've got to all straighten up in the saddle now and get on with the job.
07:49And here's the theatre that they'll play on.
07:5114 corners.
07:522.87 kilometres or a little under.
07:552.9 in fact.
07:56An average speed of 150 kilometres an hour.
07:59And you can see the complexity from the exit of turn one all the way down to the final corner at 14.
08:05There's a lot of wheel work here.
08:06We're coming into qualifying.
08:08We're going to see qualifying for races 18 and 19.
08:10They can use the soft tyre.
08:11And there's the sectors we'll talk about.
08:13The first split deals with the cars up to the turning point at turn 5.
08:17Heading into the valley.
08:18And the second timing reference is up at turn 10.
08:21So the story so far this weekend.
08:24Yesterday in the 60-60 Super Sprint.
08:25David Reynolds started on pole position for the Bonolo Racing FPR 4.
08:29The second career pole.
08:31He's still searching for his first win.
08:34He missed out on that.
08:35Jamie Winkup is still searching for his first pole at this track.
08:39But he ended up with the race victory.
08:41So a couple of things to tidy up.
08:43Just before we get into the next phase of excitement this weekend.
08:47Alex Premmer.
08:49Loss of 15 championship points for the incident.
08:51Tim Slade and Jonathan Webb.
08:52That Mark detailed in our highlights.
08:54And just also reiterating that Craig Lowndes docked 15 points for his part in that incident.
08:59Yesterday.
09:00Up into turn 6 in the valley.
09:02So you go up and down pit lane as we leave the track last night.
09:07And it's just a mess.
09:08We arrived this morning and there are 28 effectively brand new cars sitting there.
09:12They're all polished up.
09:13All shiny and ready to rumble.
09:15They will have faith that the crews have pieced these cars together.
09:19To the point where they can go racing without any worries.
09:22The big question is for guys like Winterbottom.
09:25Especially down at FPR.
09:26They had some troubles last night.
09:29Craig Lowndes for instance.
09:30How do they mentally regroup from this?
09:32Well it's a very interesting point Matt.
09:34Because I just spoke to Tim Edwards.
09:37And I just spoke to Matthew Nielsen.
09:39The head engineer at FPR.
09:41And we were talking about their run yesterday.
09:43And clearly between Dave Reynolds and Mark Winterbottom.
09:46The incident that they had.
09:48And some of the debrief of what had gone on yesterday.
09:51Has had an impact on their policy.
09:53And what they do in terms of.
09:55Not necessarily team orders.
09:56But getting on with life.
09:57And we said yesterday at the end of the telecast.
09:59The only way to beat Winkup.
10:01Is to put pressure on him.
10:02So these.
10:03This is Tim Edwards.
10:04James Small just there.
10:05Matt Nielsen on the right.
10:07They've got to make decisions about these cars.
10:09And they've got to come out.
10:10And get on with it.
10:11Because these qualifying sessions right now.
10:13They're going to determine whether you can put pressure on Winkup.
10:17They've only got two sets of soft tyres.
10:20Qualifying for race 18 and 19.
10:22Will be basically one set of softs per qualifying session.
10:25And you've got to do the best job.
10:27One best lap that you can put together.
10:30And as a combination.
10:32In respect to that debate yesterday.
10:34About David Reynolds and Mark Winterbottom.
10:36And Ford Performance Racing.
10:37Pepsi Max in general.
10:38And the other two cars in that group.
10:40If for whatever reason.
10:41And however it's structured.
10:42Whatever the leadership group looks like.
10:44If you can't get the act together.
10:46And you can't resolve it internally.
10:47You're effectively giving Jamie Winkup a free kick.
10:50That's precisely what's going on.
10:51He's won six of the last seven races.
10:53And he's blazing off in the championship.
10:56And so they're letting him off the hook.
10:58I think is the point that you've also been making.
11:00Repeatedly over the weekend.
11:03They had a battle.
11:05Winterbottom and Davison yesterday.
11:07They battled in the first part of the 60-60 format.
11:10And then we saw in the last part of the 60-60.
11:12A great battle with Dave Reynolds and Winkup.
11:15Big slide there for Winterbottom.
11:17But it evolved into Winkup getting in front.
11:20With the two FPR cars right behind him.
11:22Then they ended up in their own battle.
11:24That allowed Winkup to get away.
11:26And ultimately they end up running into each other.
11:28Which ultimately then gave Winkup the gift that we spoke of.
11:32So what they've got to do is regroup.
11:34They're on hard tyres right now.
11:36They've only got eight soft tyres.
11:38There'll be four tyres used in each of these sessions.
11:40It's only 15 minutes.
11:42And you have to do the very, very best, most committed lap to qualify at the front of this field.
11:49There was some weirdness going on with David Waugh before we saw that car being manipulated on the Gojax in the pit lane.
11:55So we'll get to the bottom of that.
11:56We also saw Mostert off the road.
11:58Remember that Chas grabbed a seventh place yesterday.
12:01Quite a number of people making profit from the dramas that were triggered by this man, unfortunately.
12:06It was interesting when we went on board with his V8 supercar camera in that highlights there before, Scooby.
12:12Because with our coverage yesterday, it looked as though he dive-bombed.
12:16But it wasn't the case.
12:18He didn't actually dive-bomb Tanner.
12:19It actually kissed lightly.
12:20It was the secondary hit that involved Courtney and Bright and all those guys behind that actually created the car.
12:26Clearly it all started in that car there.
12:29But it was interesting to unfurl all the detail last night and look at data and look at pictures.
12:33And, well, you were 100% right because all the cars are turning in at that point, aren't they?
12:38So it doesn't take much.
12:39The cars are already rotating.
12:40A little bump at that point will spin anybody.
12:42Yes.
12:43Gosh, you made the point.
12:44It was a tough day yesterday for Pepsi Max.
12:45I'm just with Tim Edwards now.
12:47Tim, how do you put that behind you yesterday and regroup and get on with the job today?
12:51Oh, look, you know, we spent a lot of time last night.
12:54The four drivers together, the engineers together.
12:57Subsequently, we had the whole team together on a couple of occasions last night because, you're right,
13:01we've got to pick ourselves up.
13:02Yesterday was a disaster for us, you know, some from our own fault, some from other people.
13:07But, you know, we've got to come back and fight hard again today.
13:10I mean, the encouraging thing is that we've got very fast cars.
13:13So, you know, nobody can deny that.
13:15You know, we've just got to make sure we execute, make sure we don't trip ourselves up.
13:19And most of all, keep the team together because it's teamwork that's going to succeed for us.
13:23Good luck, Tim.
13:24Thanks.
13:24Thanks, mate.
13:25That's really good comment.
13:27That is really sound advice and very good leadership to be able to say that's exactly the approach that you've got to have.
13:34And at the end of the day, what Tim just said is you have to be fast enough.
13:39They have shown great speed all year.
13:41We said in the commentary yesterday that now, Win Cup should have had four of those wins taken out of his world
13:48because Winterbottom should have won more races.
13:51And yesterday's example was exactly that.
13:53So the speed is ultimately king.
13:56Russell Ingle, of course, yesterday equaled the all-time most starts record of John Bowne, 225.
14:04He started from position 28.
14:06As a genuine qualifier, that's the first time that he qualified last in the field.
14:10I had to take sharp instruments away from him last night when I leant on one of the drums in the back of the pit lane in the dark
14:16and talked about it, he was pretty despondent, just not able to get a handle on the car.
14:20Here's Chas Mostad.
14:21Watch the back of this car at turn five.
14:22When he turns it in, the thing was just disconnected and sliding, ugly style there before.
14:28But Rusty's had a great innings, 27 race wins in that extraordinary career, just one pole position,
14:35and he's now the most experienced man in the modern history of the game.
14:38Extraordinary innings.
14:44Welcome back.
14:45This is qualifying for race 18 of the championship.
14:47You're on board with Scott McLaughlin, who has just radioed to the crew,
14:52I think I should have a crack, but he's not going to this time.
14:55He's been warming up the tyres.
14:57And it was left back to his hands.
14:59You make the call, mate.
15:00If you're ready, go for it.
15:01And it could have been a perfect call, too, because there's only two cars out on the track,
15:06McLaughlin and Garth Tanner, 26 cars in pit lane.
15:10Matt, it's been a real milestone weekend for Erebus Motorsport,
15:13and I'm with the CEO, Ryan Madison.
15:14Now, Ryan, that was a big result yesterday, getting Tim Slade to sixth,
15:18and your boys are sitting P2 and P3 at the moment.
15:20This is a big step forward this weekend.
15:22Yeah, it's a huge step.
15:23We had to change our strategy fairly dynamically yesterday with the turnaround in the first lap
15:29of the first race going to the rear.
15:30So then it actually played in our favour going into the second race with managing our tyre degradation in the first.
15:36But, yeah, it's a huge step forward.
15:37I think it probably shows where we should be by this stage of the year.
15:40It's what we expected.
15:41Yeah, we all know you've done a great deal of work, mate.
15:43So congratulations.
15:44Good to see you getting the results.
15:45Thanks very much.
15:46Really appreciate it.
15:47Cheers.
15:48It was very encouraging.
15:48I just spoke to Ryan before, and he's rapped that the cars are starting to show that sort of form,
15:54and to have four different manufacturers in the top seven yesterday, great, great competition we've got going.
16:00You know, it was funny.
16:01I went past Erebus Motorsport and had exactly that kind of chat with Ryan as well,
16:04and I said to him, is there anything wrong with that car?
16:06He said, no, just a scratch.
16:07I said, what about that one?
16:08He said, no, just a little scratch.
16:09I said, what about that one?
16:10He goes, no, no, just a scratch.
16:11So you're the only one in pit lane who can say that, mate, buy a lottery ticket.
16:17Weird dynamic down here on the pit lane, chaps, at the moment.
16:19The entire field in here, bar one.
16:22And if you look at the timesheet, you'll see Jonathan Webb comfortably at the top there by about four tenths.
16:26Now, this one was actually done wrong.
16:28There's two cars out there.
16:29That was another one just going by in the background, in case you're wondering.
16:33What's happened there is because of the restriction in soft tyres,
16:36obviously everyone wants to use one set of tyres in this session and one in the next.
16:39So they're all sitting here saving them.
16:41And Jono Webb managed to go out on a green set of car tyres at the start of the session
16:46when everyone else used tyres, which was a most unusual strategy.
16:50I'm trying to get to the bottom of why they did that.
16:52So McLaughlin is on the soft tyre at the moment.
16:55So you can see the green box indicates it, plus the light in behind the windscreen there,
17:00illuminated on the passenger's side front.
17:02So this will give everybody the first reference.
17:04And he's doing it with an empty track at the moment.
17:06Alex Prem is out there as well, his teammate.
17:08They've both done good sector splits.
17:09In fact, Alex has gone faster in the first sector than his teammate, Scott.
17:14So we'll see what a brand new soft tyre can produce.
17:18Only eight of them available.
17:19They'll use them in both these qualifying sessions.
17:229-0 for Scotty McLaughlin.
17:24Rick Kelly's gone out as well.
17:26And just remember that there were seven guys yesterday that had season-best results.
17:31Engel, Mostat, Rick Kelly, Webb.
17:33James Courtney equalled his best, Caruso and Slade.
17:36Here's Prem, what's he got?
17:38He's chasing down his teammate.
17:39He actually lost time in the last two sectors.
17:439-2.
17:44So he lost a lot of time.
17:45His first sector was fantastic.
17:46So there are a heap of people who had some tales of woe last night,
17:50but there were quite a number of them who also had some positive stories.
17:53This guy here actually redeemed some points, Jason Bright.
17:56Here's the replay of Alex Prem.
17:57It'll probably explain why there was a bit of time loss.
18:00This is up at the top of the hill at turn 9 and 10.
18:02He's run a bit wide there.
18:04You can see it actually reacting a bit poorly to those bumps as well.
18:07There's quite a number of little seams in the road here that are a bit of a challenge.
18:11You can see him picking up dirt on the inside.
18:13So now the next thing that'll happen is that you're going to have the entire field
18:16whinging about the entire field because they've all gone out nose to tail.
18:19Only 60 seconds ago it was an empty track.
18:22So I was going to say, Jason Bright ended up with a tyre delaminating.
18:25That's why we saw him go off the road down at turn one,
18:28because the guard was rubbing as a result of all the contact up in the hairpin.
18:32But he did redeem some points and he's moved to third in the championship.
18:36And Scott McLaughlin has just done a 108.955.
18:39So that whole thing about using that time when there's nobody out there
18:43is really starting to stick out per round because now there's 28 cars out there.
18:47In the meantime, Scotty McLaughlin gets two full laps, two flying full laps on soft tyres.
18:53He had enough time to warm it up.
18:55We were with him.
18:56He had enough time to think about whether he's going to have an early crack.
18:59And now he's done a 108.955.
19:02And the rest of them will have to better that with traffic.
19:05Matty, Matty, that's a very good point you make, mate.
19:07But the only downside to that is there's 27 other cars are about to put down rubber.
19:11And that's the little trade-off, isn't it?
19:13Well, it is.
19:14The question is, how much do you gain?
19:17Well, that's a very good point.
19:18I would argue the clear track's still worth having.
19:20Now, 8.36 was the time that Winterbottom did last year on the soft tyre.
19:25So currently an 8.95 is half a second away from that.
19:28Remember, it's a different tyre now with a car of the future.
19:30It's an 18-inch tyre.
19:32So the specification of the tyre is different from the previous year.
19:36Now, Garth Panda.
19:37You just see him.
19:38There's Ingle off the road.
19:39His woes continue.
19:40He's had a shocking weekend.
19:41Garth had a lot of damage with this car.
19:46They were working on it well into the evening.
19:48One of many teams that didn't get away from here until towards midnight.
19:51But they were also lamenting set-up and just contemplating what they did right and wrong yesterday.
19:57So he was talking with Jason Bush in the garage last night about how to get more from it.
20:01Traffic jam.
20:03You can see this on-repeat cycle.
20:05So Courtney Van Gisbergen.
20:06I mean, that's awful.
20:07That is so bad.
20:09That's average.
20:09Seriously.
20:10So Rick Kelly's arrived on the scene at race pace.
20:14Jamie Wincup, meantime, has done the fastest sector split.
20:16And we're watching Garth Tander here at the moment.
20:20Tander's still down the order.
20:21Still looking to record a number.
20:22The reason it's so bad is because you can only use one set of tyres.
20:26You've got two sets total.
20:28One set is dedicated to each of these qualifying sessions.
20:30So as soon as you get a balk, then you're over and out.
20:33So Garth Tander does a 108.96.
20:35Lowndes is the one to watch.
20:36Two green boxes.
20:37He looks as though he's had a traffic clear run.
20:41And he goes to the top with a 108.87.
20:45So that's the trade-off, isn't it?
20:46Wincup now.
20:47108.65.
20:48Under a minute left.
20:49Maro Engel into the six.
20:54David Wall buys in.
20:56That'll really hurt Rick Kelly because he's taken a snip out of those tyres now in the Jack Daniels car.
21:00Reynolds' six one-hundredths off.
21:02Jamie Wincup's time now.
21:04Davison.
21:06Courtney looks quick as well.
21:08Fast to the first and second sectors.
21:11Here's his time.
21:11It's an 8.5.
21:12James Courtney.
21:13Great job.
21:14Fastest man.
21:17Winterbottom.
21:18Webb goes into fourth.
21:20Dave Reynolds fifth.
21:21Tim Slade.
21:21Great job.
21:22Sixth.
21:23Winterbottom P2.
21:24Eight-six.
21:26Here comes Coulthard.
21:28And Todd Kelly, who's been a race winner here previously.
21:31Coulthard's been very unhappy with the balance of his car.
21:35Todd will go up.
21:36He'll go up into the top ten.
21:37Remember, this is just a flat-out qualifying session.
21:40There's no shoot-out for this one.
21:41Poles on the line.
21:43Courtney has gone on with it with the fastest time to the first sector as we watch the conclusion
21:47of Jason Bright's lap.
21:49He's down in 15th for Team BOC.
21:52He's the lap record holder.
21:53He's the qualifying record holder.
21:54It was done a while ago.
21:55And he bolts tonight to go to France for the Le Mans 24-hour sports car race tomorrow.
22:00In fact, if he gets on the podium, he won't be able to go up there because he's going
22:03to race straight to the airport.
22:05P10 for Bright.
22:06And here's Reynolds.
22:07Good job, Philip.
22:08Sixth.
22:09So it looks as though nobody has anything left to knock James Courtney off pole position,
22:14which is the first time in three years that he has been there.
22:18Although Tim Slade is quick in the Erebus AMG Mercedes-Benz.
22:22A green box for the first sector.
22:24A personal best in the second sector.
22:26Can Slade make history here?
22:28He goes up to fifth.
22:29So Courtney's last pole was Winton 2010.
22:34So at the moment, he's on target to grab pole number four as they all trickle in.
22:38And Coulthard's gone up to fourth.
22:40So we've just got to be careful that nobody else gets in there.
22:42But there's Tony Dow, Rob Starr, the engineer.
22:45It's a great moment.
22:46A nice breakthrough moment for the Holden Racing Team because they tested at Winton just recently.
22:51And it's clearly boosted their form.
22:54Well, well done.
22:55James Courtney was on the podium yesterday.
22:57In fact, both cars were having a good run until Garth Tander copped the crunch from Craig Lowndes.
23:01So Courtney gets pole position for the first time in three years.
23:05The first for HRT this season as well.
23:09Jason Bright will start from 11th.
23:11Russell Indle from 23rd.
23:13And Alex Davison's poor run continues here.
23:15He'll start on the back of the grid with Rick Kelly.
23:18Barrettes?
23:18Well, James Courtney, just debriefing with Rob Starr and team at the moment.
23:22Just about to rip that helmet off.
23:23But JC, congratulations.
23:25That's a good one.
23:26We've missed you up on pole for a while.
23:28Yeah, it's been a while between drink, Barrettes.
23:31But stoked.
23:33We've been working crazy hard here at HRT.
23:36And super stoked to get a result for the fans.
23:39Yesterday was a bit crazy.
23:40Got home with a third, so that was awesome.
23:43But, you know, these guys have never given up.
23:45As myself and Garth, we've just been slogging away.
23:48So, you know, stoked to get the result, mate.
23:50Just, we need to be on the top at the end of the day.
23:53So we'll go again and see how we end up.
23:55How are you doing?
23:55All the right things, JC.
23:56Enjoy it.
23:57Well done.
23:57Cheers, guys.
23:58It's been more than 50 races since Holden Racing Team has been on the top step of the podium.
24:03It's today the day.
24:04Well, we've got another qualifying session still to come right after this.
24:12Well, James Courtney breaks a three-year pole drought
24:16and also breaks a run of seven straight pole positions by four drivers at this circuit.
24:22So, breakthroughs all round for the Holden Racing Team.
24:25He becomes the seventh man to collect the cheque and does severe guitar with it.
24:30That might slow him down for the next session, though.
24:32The seventh man in 2013 to start from pole position.
24:37There's not a lot of time to celebrate, and that's the funky bit about this Sunday format change.
24:42It's just a short break, and they head back out again.
24:46So, another 15-minute session, and this is qualifying for race 19, our second race of the day later this afternoon.
24:53I'm curious to see whether anybody observed what went on in that previous qualifying for race 18,
24:59and perhaps just go and pull the trigger a minute or two early.
25:02Soft tyres on straight away there for Will Davison.
25:04The light illuminated behind the screen, so not wasting any time to get on them,
25:08because I think the notion of a cleared track is worth having.
25:12That extra 60 or 120 seconds, two, maybe even three minutes, get yourself a clear air opportunity to go and do your best,
25:20because there's an awful lot of time on these tyres between the ears.
25:23There's a lot of drive, of feel and comfort that's required to actually punch a number out like this.
25:27And also make the point this afternoon, we've got two 100-kilometre races where they can use both tyres,
25:33so strategy's going to be important, and as always, qualifying five.
25:37Yeah, and this is fascinating, Neil, just going up and down the pit lane,
25:39and we talked about in that previous qualifying, trading off traffic against the rubber going down,
25:44and the FPR boys were generally towards the back of the pack, and believe they benefited from that.
25:49However, Will Davison has just gone out on a set of green tyres,
25:53because they are now going the other way, satisfied there's enough rubber down on the track now.
25:58The track is clean, and they want a clear lap.
26:00So just before they all go charging out and start lighting up,
26:04the timing monitor, quick snapshot of that previous session.
26:07As we know, Courtney got pole position, this Mark Winterbottom will start from second.
26:11The whole field separated by 0.9 of a second, all 28 cars separated by less than a second.
26:18Tim Slade, the best ever qualifier for Mercedes-Benz sixth.
26:22Jamie Winkup, our championship leader fifth, and Craig Lowndes will start.
26:25And Rick Kelly, who we saw really affected by the traffic, ended up last.
26:33So that was a massive moment for him, when he was on his green tyre, got caught up with the traffic.
26:38So Will Davison is trying to learn from that.
26:41Early in the session, there's only about 10 cars out there on the circuit,
26:44and Davison has got the soft tyre on.
26:46But some of the other guys, Neil, will also use the soft tyre from the previous session.
26:51And get a feel for it before they put their new set on.
26:54I'd like to see a little bit more, in some respects, race-controlled intervention with this slow traffic thing,
27:00so that we don't end up with another incident like we had at Adelaide last year.
27:03Just when I see cars out there doing 20km an hour on a hot racetrack that you're meant to be qualifying on, I cringe.
27:11But anyway, we'll get on with it now.
27:128.5 for Will Davison.
27:13There we are inside the bunker.
27:15And that matches the number that was achieved by James Courtney in the previous qualifying session.
27:19Here's Mauro Engel.
27:22Currently in fifth position, SP Tools, Mercedes AMG E63.
27:27OK, thanks, so in at the end of this lap, please.
27:28So that 1.08.56 for Will Davison is just three one-hundredths of a second off the pole sitting time of Courtney in the previous session.
27:44At least they're quick learners.
27:46They've decided very quickly that there's no point messing around with traffic at the back end of these sessions.
27:50It has taken them, what, up to race 19 of qualifying for the season to sort it out, though.
27:57Davison leads the way.
27:58OK, quick break.
27:58Bring you straight back.
28:06So this is qualifying continuing for the second race of the afternoon, race 19 of the championship.
28:11And you're taking a look at the heavy haulage Australia bends of Tim Slade.
28:16As we know, he's just posted the best ever qualifier for Merck in the previous session.
28:21He'll start from sixth.
28:22What has he got this time around?
28:23Well, I'm interested that so many of the guys have gone out on hard tyres.
28:26After using the soft tyre at the end of the last session, I would have reused the soft tyre just for one lap to get my eye in and go again on the softs.
28:34Because there's such a big disparity between the hard tyre grip that it can't serve you well when you go to the soft tyre.
28:40All the brake reference points are massively different.
28:43The amount of lateral or side load that the tyre accepts mid-corner is totally different.
28:48The amount of throttle, advanced percentage that you can get on when you first pick the throttle up on the soft tyre is totally different.
28:53So you're right, it's a completely different tempo.
28:56Totally different song on the soft tyre.
28:59But different guys have got their own protocols as to how they get themselves in and dialed in for the process.
29:04This is Lee Holdsworth.
29:05Watching him in the Irwin Tools entry at the moment.
29:08Team owner for that outfit, Erebus Motorsport, Betty Klemenko.
29:11They had all three cars at Morgan Park in Queensland just recently.
29:15Difficult to access Queensland Raceway, which we're going to shortly.
29:18Lee qualified 20th in the previous session.
29:21Had a chat to Ross Stone this morning and very satisfied that they've made some solid gains.
29:26Mark Larkham detailed in V8 Extra yesterday how they've changed the induction system and also the exhaust on these cars.
29:32Found a little bit of pace and performance.
29:34Just also quickly going back to Garth Tander.
29:39He was very unhappy in the previous qualifying about the brake balance of the car.
29:43And I spoke to him about it last night.
29:44But when he goes one click on his brake bias, one way or the other, the car reacts very poorly in both directions.
29:51And he's very cranky about the fact that he can't get that balance.
29:55Meantime, his teammate, James Courtney, in that previous session was able to do the job that required.
30:02It'll be good to see Alex Davis move up the field here.
30:04He's had a tough run.
30:05He goes up to second.
30:06So he tucks in behind his younger brother, Will, who is currently provisionally on pole with a 108.56.
30:13Scott McLaughlin has shown bursts of speed along the way here, but been swamped when it mattered.
30:18He's down in 19th, one green box.
30:21He's really working this Fujitsu Commodore hard.
30:24Two green boxes, almost two-tenths of a second.
30:27So we're looking at a low 108 if he can keep this run going.
30:32What a great view of the 20-year-old Kiwi.
30:35Youngest ever race winner in our category.
30:38He arrived on the scene with a bang.
30:40Dunlop Series champion from last year.
30:44Comes here and goes to the top of 108.4.
30:46Great job.
30:48Best we've seen all weekend.
30:49Watching that very closely was Will Davison here in the Pepsi Max garage.
30:53Will, you took a bit of a punt.
30:54You used the tyres.
30:55You put your time down and you've racked it for now.
30:57Yeah, it was a bit unusual what we did then.
31:01Track temperature's obviously going up.
31:02So we're trying to weigh up whether it's better and cooler track temp or to wait when all the extra rubber goes down.
31:07So our theory doesn't seem that great at the moment.
31:10McLaughlin's just pipped us.
31:11So we've just got to wait and see how many other people can improve.
31:14But anyway, my lap felt okay.
31:17But maybe the track's rubbering up a bit now.
31:19Still on that front row.
31:20Hang in there.
31:20All good, cheers.
31:21All right, so they're going to play the waiting game for a few minutes, which gives us the opportunity to grab a quick break.
31:26When we come back, maximum attack in the chase for pole position.
31:35So that waiting game is done and dusted.
31:37Now comes the crazy part.
31:38Four minutes to go.
31:39Pit lane absolutely chock-a-block as they all start to charge towards the exit.
31:44Scott McLaughlin's time.
31:45108.42.
31:47Is it going to be enough?
31:48Well, that's a very, very good lap time.
31:49It's a tenth faster than Courtney's fastest from the previous session.
31:54Now you can see the congestion.
31:55We saw Rick Kelly affected by it so badly.
31:58Neil made the comment about Garth Tander.
32:00In the previous session, James Courtney pole position.
32:03Garth Tander is 15th.
32:05It's only four tenths of a second.
32:07The same thing with Tim Slade.
32:09Tim Slade, sixth.
32:11And Lee Holdsworth, 20th.
32:13So there is nothing in this field.
32:15Nine tenths separates the whole field.
32:18This will be unbelievable.
32:19We've got three minutes and 24 seconds remaining.
32:23And cue the traffic jam.
32:24Out come all the cars from the pit lane.
32:26And it is going to be a very congested back end of this Race 19 qualifying.
32:31We know that this man is the youngest ever race winner.
32:34But he's never had pole position yet.
32:36His best qualifier came on that magical weekend for him at Pukekohe with a fourth.
32:41So they've decided to come on in and rest on that time.
32:44So he's had a clear track.
32:45He's got the job done.
32:46Here's a little replay of an issue for his teammate, Alex Premmer, who lights it up on the run through turn nine and ten.
32:52And that's very easily done up there with the car unweighted.
32:55Locking the inside front wheel.
32:57So now the rest of them basically all go out and pull the trigger.
33:00And the difference with how you make the lap speed here is how you get onto the straight.
33:14It's one of the longest straights in our sport.
33:17And you've got to use the lap.
33:18So back at the Darwin sign, you've got to come onto the straight.
33:22Absolute best exit you can possibly make.
33:25And you've got to put your foot on the brake at turn one as light as you can possibly put your foot on the brake.
33:30You see the chattering of the splitter on Jason Bright's car again.
33:34The Brad Jones Racing Cars have all been doing that this year.
33:36There it is again.
33:37It gets a vibration, a high frequency vibration up, which is basically affecting the wing performance.
33:42And I spoke to Bradley about it earlier in the year.
33:45And they thought they were on top of it.
33:46But it's not on the evidence of those pictures.
33:48We've just seen it twice in two medium high speed braking areas.
33:52Exactly.
33:52A couple of guys are going great.
33:53Dave Reynolds, 23.73.
33:55The fastest first sector so far.
33:57So Jason Bright, who's very, very good in qualifying here.
34:01We've said he put some very good laps together over the years.
34:05This will be interesting to see where he lobs.
34:06He's about two tenths away from McLaughlin,
34:08who's done an outstanding job to set the benchmark for this session.
34:138-4-2 is the number.
34:15Everyone's chasing.
34:16Let's start this next lap.
34:17Start this next lap.
34:21This will be the one that counts the next one.
34:23Bright goes up to third.
34:25Look out for David Reynolds and Craig Lowndes.
34:27So Lowndes was fastest to the first sector.
34:29A personal best in the second.
34:32And he does it.
34:331.08-2.
34:34Oh, that's quick.
34:35Oh, that is quick.
34:36The best we've seen for the weekend, even better than last year.
34:38And look at Davey in the Bottle-O entries.
34:40Just done an 8-2-3.
34:42David Reynolds from Craig Lowndes by .03 of a second.
34:46James Courtney's on the charge.
34:48He's down in 25th.
34:49He's quickest to the second sector.
34:51So could this be back-to-back poles for Courtney?
34:54After waiting three years, no third.
34:57But better by two tenths than the lap he recorded in the previous qualifying for James.
35:01So again, much better performance for Tander.
35:048-6-1.
35:06Courtney was actually catching his teammate there.
35:08He took three tenths away.
35:098-3-1.
35:10That's Scott McLaughlin.
35:11And Lowndes is going on with it.
35:12He is.
35:13He's on the fastest first sector still.
35:15Fabian Coulthard.
35:17Also very good in qualifying in the previous run.
35:19So Reynolds from Lowndes.
35:21Courtney McLaughlin.
35:22Winner bottom.
35:23See on the bottom right of screen.
35:24Two green boxes for Lowndes.
35:26Fabian's on screen at the moment.
35:27It's been a bit of a scrappy weekend for him.
35:29But Lowndes is threatening Reynolds here for pole.
35:32Here's Fabian.
35:34The car is getting better.
35:35You heard him say a little bit earlier.
35:37But will it be enough?
35:38He drops into sixth place.
35:39Here comes Lowndes.
35:42Not enough.
35:43Not enough.
35:45But it looked great in the first two sectors.
35:47It was fantastic.
35:49But in the final sector, he lost time, Craig Lowndes.
35:52David Reynolds may have got the job done here.
35:55Another top ten qualifier for Tim Slade.
35:58He crosses the line in tenth with a 1.08.56.
36:02And Mark Winterbottom still out there.
36:04He's going to pull out of this one.
36:07He's actually on a pretty good first split.
36:09But he's pulled out of it now.
36:12And complaining of rear grip.
36:14So David Reynolds' day started so wonderfully well yesterday
36:17with pole position and ended with disaster.
36:20Ford Performance Racing went back, sat down,
36:22talked about it man to man.
36:24And he comes back out here with another pole position.
36:27Larco.
36:28Yeah.
36:28Hey, Davey Reynolds, mate.
36:30Well, I'll just let him there.
36:31Hug with the team boss.
36:32Hang on.
36:32How about a hug for Larco?
36:33Hang on.
36:34That's all right, brother.
36:35Love it, mate.
36:36Fantastic.
36:36Okay.
36:37So, pole yesterday.
36:39Didn't turn out.
36:40Pole today, mate.
36:41Can you do it this time?
36:42Don't let me down.
36:43No, absolutely.
36:44You know, our car's pretty good at the minute.
36:46So, in the first session, I don't think we got the pressures right.
36:50I didn't do the best job.
36:51But then we made a change to the cars a lot better.
36:53So, yeah, I'm stoked.
36:55It's good.
36:55So, in terms of a race car, mate, it's obviously quick over a lap.
36:58We saw yesterday, for those that didn't, you managed the degradation very, very well.
37:03It's going to be harder today.
37:04You're on a soft tyre.
37:05You all right for that?
37:06Well, in the first race, I managed it better than the second race.
37:09I was under pressure from behind by someone.
37:11So, no, like, I'm really happy.
37:13My car's been fantastic all weekend.
37:15So, you know, it's a credit to the boys.
37:16They worked till 12 o'clock last night fixing all the damage, all four cars.
37:19So, you know, it's a credit to them.
37:21Sum it up in one word, mate.
37:23Outstanding.
37:23Well done.
37:24Thanks, man.
37:24Cheers.
37:25Woo!
37:26He took his words away.
37:27Heaps good was how he summarised it.
37:29So, David Reynolds, after qualifying...
37:31Yes, he does get another $1,500.
37:33After qualifying eighth for race 18, gets pole position for the second race.
37:37And great effort from Craig Lounce.
37:39His turn that qualifying woes around.
37:41He'll start from the front row of the grid, the back end of the afternoon.
37:44Alex Davison pushed through the field.
37:46Scotty Pye in 21st.
37:48Rick Kelly again in 25th.
37:50Our championship leader, by the way, Jamie Winkup.
37:53Qualified ninth.
37:53His drought of pole positions at Hidden Valley continues.
37:56Can Davey Reynolds make it stick at the end of the day?
37:59You're going to have to find out.
38:00A big day ahead of racing here in the heat in Darwin.
38:02I am the sun.
38:04You shoot me from a gun.
38:06Well, two out of three pole positions for the weekend ain't bad for David Reynolds.
38:14The bottle of Ford has done it again.
38:17He was on pole for the 60-60 Super Sprint.
38:19He will be on pole for the last race of the afternoon.
38:23The 100k 35 lapper.
38:25Another $1,500 goes into the kitty.
38:28What he really wants is his first race win.
38:32Barretts?
38:33Well, Craig Lowndes, yesterday had highs and it had lows, but today's a whole new day.
38:37P2, nice.
38:38Yeah, well, look, it is.
38:39I think it's quite interesting, obviously, Barretts, that you have two qualifying sessions,
38:42one for each race.
38:43The first qualifying session didn't quite get it right, and, of course, that's the first
38:47time anyone's been on a soft tyre, but second session, or the second qualifying session,
38:51we made a little adjustment to the rear of the car, and it was much better.
38:54Okay, so you're feeling good with the car and where you're at?
38:56Yeah, much better.
38:57Like, the car is working really well, like it was early in the weekend, so, yeah, looking
39:00forward to it.
39:01Just got to say hello to Levi and Chile out there, but, look, it's obviously, hopefully
39:04we can finish the weekend on a high.
39:06Go for it, Lancey.
39:07Good on you, mate.
39:07And happy birthday.
39:08Thanks, mate.
39:10Scotty McLaughlin, mate, first of all, great effort, but what a hard decision, this dilemma between
39:15traffic and rubber down on the track.
39:18You made the decision to go out, get a free track, maybe didn't get the benefit of the
39:21rubber.
39:22Yeah, that first session killed us.
39:24We thought we made the right call, especially when everyone was choking themselves up there,
39:27but, yeah, no rubber down wasn't too good.
39:30We made the same call thinking, yeah, soft tyres, rubber is down for qualifying too, and
39:34it worked out, and I had clear track, and away I went.
39:37Having said all that now, mate, the car, you just said a comment to me before, I get a sense
39:41you're very comfortable now with the car to go and race it.
39:44Are you obviously pleased?
39:45Yeah, yeah, definitely, especially on soft tyres, mate.
39:47We need a little bit more tunability on the hard tyre, but at the moment, the soft tyre
39:53is working good for me, and I just had a lot of fun out there, and just bragging it really
39:56hard.
39:57Good luck today, buddy.
39:58Thanks, man.
39:59Cheers.
39:59Thanks, everyone.
39:59It was great to be on board with Scott McLaughlin for that lap, and here's a great opportunity
40:03from our mates at Shannon's, the chance to win the ultimate indulgence, a 16-day, fully
40:07escorted self-drive tour for two to the west coast of the US in a Ford Mustang convertible.
40:12It includes VIP entry to the Concorde d'Elegance event at Pebble Beach, tickets to the Gooding
40:18Classic Auction, and the Laguna Seca Classic Racing event.
40:21So, what you've got to do to enter is go to shannons.com.au slash Pebble Beach, or call
40:2713 46 46, and get a quote on your car, bike, or home insurance.
40:32Thanks to Shannon's.
40:34After this, your V8 Supercars, live right around the country for race 18 of the championship.
40:55Bye.
40:56Bye.
40:58Bye.
40:59Bye.
41:03Bye.