Podium a near miss for Tander – SP Tools ‘Official Tool Supplier To The Holden Racing Team’

June 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It just wasn’t Toll HRT’s day today in Race 2 at Hidden Valley with Garth Tander just missing out on a podium position and finishing fifth. His team-mate Will Davison was on track for a top ten before a late race incident relegated him down the order to 18th.

Starting from pole position after setting the fastest time in the 20 minute qualifying session earlier today, Tander leapt off the start line. He took control of the race early on before battling with Lowndes for the lead.

Dropping a few spots to cars on soft tyres Tander decided to pit on lap 11 for fuel and fresh tyres. Re-entering the race mid pack he was determined to surpass his performance yesterday and a focused Tander drove a hard fought, consistent race. He pitted again on lap 39 and from there it was a race to the end.

In a nail biting finish Tander was looking promising to finish on the podium before the safety car was called with 10 laps to go. Tander lost position on the restart to Lowndes and then another to Alex Davison who was running soft tyres. He completed the race to finish in fifth.

Tander’s team-mate Will Davison also qualified in the top ten in the second qualifying session and looked set to make it a double podium for the weekend.

Davison’s strategy had him pitting for the first time on lap 8 for fuel and tyres and then on again on lap 34. One of the silent movers and shakers Davison was sixth with just over 10 laps left in the race but after an incident with James Courtney he was left careering across the grass with only laps to go. He managed to salvage 18th position.

Michael Caruso won the race with Alex Davison crossing the line second. Craig Lowndes was third across the line.

Tander accrued the most points for the weekend and made up considerable ground on the Championship front runners and with 954 points currently sits third. Davison managed to haul enough points to maintain second and with 1128 points only sits 144 points behind Whincup.

With Event 5 now complete the Championship Series moves to Townsville for Event 6 in three weeks time.

The Toll HRT Team will remain in Darwin over the next few days to prepare the cars for the next event.

Garth Tander – #2 Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore (Qualifying: 1st, 1:09.7929; Race 10: 5th)

“There’s a little bit of ‘ifs’, ‘buts’ and ‘what could have beens’, but considering the tyres we had to play with – all the cars in front had the soft tyres on at some stage during the race and we ran the entire 69 laps on the standard tyre – fifth was probably as close as possible to the best result. We got stuffed up at the restart by Dale Wood and that hurt as Lowndes got past and ended up third. Wood needs to go back to Formula Ford because he’s seriously out of his depth. We’ve been talking for a while about putting the lapped cars to the back for the restarts, and maybe with 10 laps to go we do that so the real cars can go racing again. Overall, if you add up the points we’d be close to winning the round using the old system, so a load of good points this weekend. We’re solidly third in the championship now and, more importantly, we showed that we’ve got a very fast car now.”

Will Davison – #22 Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore (Qualifying: 7th, 1:10.1132; Race 10: 18th)

“We had 56 laps of great racing; I was having a great race, everything was working smoothly and we weren’t making any mistakes … then the restart!  The soft tyres are ridiculous enough as they are, and to bring out the Safety Car for no reason. I had one spin on a bunch of junk brought onto the track by one of the JD cars, that put me back in the pack and then I was hit from pillar to post. Old Courtney, his reputation speaks for itself, he just fired me off. 56 really good laps and hard work ruined at the end by a disappointing series of incidents.”

Hidden Valley Race 10 Results:

1. Michael Caruso, Garry Rogers Motorsport

2. Alex Davison, Stone Brothers Racing

3. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering

4. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing

5. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team

6. Paul Dumbrell, Team Autobarn

7. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport

8. Russell Ingall, Paul Morris Motorsport

9. Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing

10. Jamie Whincup, 888 Race Engineering

18. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team

Hidden Valley Qualifying 2 Results:

1. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team; 1:09.7929

2. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering; 1:09.9048

3. Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing; 1:09.9654

4. Todd Kelly, Kelly Racing; 1:10.0482

5. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport; 1:10.1000

6. Michael Caruso, Garry Rogers Motorsport; 1:10.1132

7. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team; 1:10.1132

8. James Courtney, Dick Johnson Racing; 1:10.1368

9. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing; 1:10.1558

10. Alex Davison, Stone Brothers Racing; 1:10.1975

Championship Points Table (after Event 5):

1. Jamie Whincup, 888 Race Engineering, 1272 points

2. Will Davison, Toll Holden Racing Team, 1128 points

3. Garth Tander, Toll Holden Racing Team, 954 points

4. Craig Lowndes, 888 Race Engineering, 906 points

5. Lee Holdsworth, Garry Rogers Motorsport, 897 points

6. Steven Johnson, Dick Johnson Racing, 873points

7. Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing, 807 points

8. Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing, 765 points

9. Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing, 729 points

10. Russell Ingall, Paul Morris Motorsport, 728 points

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A SHOT AT REDEMPTION – SP Tools Racing

June 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP HIDDEN VALLEYThe Sky City Triple Crown dished out some cruel blows today when Alex Davison lost an engine four laps onto the first part of Qualifying. His Teammate, Shane van Gisbergen didn’t fare much better starting on the grid in 23rd after failing to record a lap quick enough to make it into the next elimination leg.

The tracks temperature was at 46 degrees on the starting grid with the first seven cars fitted with ‘sprint’ tyres. The decision for SBR to use hards tyres only in today’s race was made in order to keep them in reserve for tomorrow’s double length feature.

On the first lap Shane was forced out wide after Jack Perkins made contact with him at turn 1. The early incident saw Shane drop back to last place and forced Perkins to retire from the race. Davison’s efforts moved him up five places before the first car of the field pitted on lap 5.

The IRWIN Falcon made its way down Pit Lane on Lap 18 for two new rear tyres and fuel, one lap later the SP Tools Falcon stopped for the same combination, Shane re-entered the race behind Alex in 27th.

The following laps remained free of Safety Car interruption and at the chequered flag Alex and Shane crossed the line 19th and 20th.

The 35 lap race was called short by one lap due to Channel 7 telecast scheduling.

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Car #9

“We thought in qualifying we would be really strong because we were good here yesterday on fresh tyres. When we went out we picked up a whole lot of understeer, the track had changed quite a lot over night. It was the first time we didn’t make it into the top twenty with no problems which was a real shame.

“We continued to struggle in the race with understeer and couldn’t tune it out with the bars or the break bias so we just drove around the back the whole race.

“I am confident we can come back from this and make good use of the soft tyres tomorrow.”

Ross Stone – SBR Team Principal

“After having such a strong performance yesterday to qualify badly with Shane and lose an engine in Alex’s car was pretty devastating. One of the things that keeps you going in racing is there is always tomorrow, we have fresh sets of tyres for both cars in qualifying and the soft tyres that we know will give us a 1.8 to 2 second a lap advantage.”

Race Results
TODAY’S RESULTS
POS CAR # DRIVER TEAM VEHICLE
1 1 Jamie Whincup Team Vodafone Ford FG
2 5 Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing Ford FG
3 22 Will Davison Holden Racing Team Holden VE
4 2 Garth Tander Holden Racing Team Holden VE
5 7 Todd Kelly Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden VE
6 888 Craig Lowndes Team Vodafone Ford FG
7 8 Jason Richards Team BOC Holden VE
8 18 James Courtney Jim Beam Racing Ford FG
19 4 Alex Davison IRWIN Racing Ford FG
20 9 Shane van Gisbergen SP Tools Racing Ford FG

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What Good Is A V8 Supercar Without Some Beauty….

March 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

sp_tools_grid_girls-o1-09-000781

V8 Supercars are fun no questions asked but racing just wouldn’t be the same without beautiful women…

We take great pleasure and pride in introducing you to the SP Tools Racing Grid Girls.

From Left to Right:

Jenny Kellett, Elise Griffiths, Jess Plush,  Kristen McKenzie.

Thankyou – Sensational Job.

Visit Australia’s home of SP Tools – SP AIR TOOLS – SP HAND TOOLS – SCORPION POWERED PRODUCTS – SRT TOOLS

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TOUGH DAY FOR SBR ON THE STREETS OF ADELAIDE

March 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP ADELAIDE

TOUGH DAY FOR SBR ON THE STREETS OF ADELAIDE
22/03/2009

It was a frustrating day for the SBR team, after finishing with strong positional gains on track in yesterday’s race, the SP Tools Racing #9 car started 12th and the IRWIN Racing #4 car lined up 26th, due to the new qualifying start rule introduced by V8 Supercars for this years championship series.

In front of a huge crowd, in excess of 270,000 over the four day race weekend, the SBR Ford FG Falcons battled it out for valuable championship points in tough conditions. A slow start from van Gisbergen in Race 2 lost him a few positions in the first lap putting him back into 15th before an early safety car period interrupted the race to remove Jack Perkin’s car after an incident at turn 8.

In the following laps Shane managed to fight his way through to be inside the top ten with lap times matching the speed of the leading drivers. Encouragement from his engineer, Paul Forgie, helped to keep Shane alert and focused for the chase into his second stint.

Paul Forgie – Race Engineer Car #9 (In Car Radio – Lap 30)
“Good work, get back into your rhythm and make every corner count.”
After two more restarts Shane communicated to the SBR crew complications with the throttle reporting it was sticking.

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver SP Tools Racing Car #9
“The race was okay today, I stuffed up the start and let a few guys through but we went on a bit of a charge, the car was awesome and the guys did a great job preparing it. We were on the case and passed a lot of cars and at the end of our first stint we were looking good. We managed to keep the pace then later in the second stint the butterfly had bent so it was carrying throttle into the corners so I couldn’t pull it up and it wouldn’t turn, I had to clutch it every corner which cost us a lot of time.”

IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison experienced another drama filled day in the #4 FG Falcon struggling with the car as well as a foot injury sustained during Saturday’s race. On lap 44 after a perfect pit-stop Alex clipped the tyre wall at turn one causing the centre of his front left tyre to shred forcing him to return to the pits the following lap.

Once Alex returned to the track he managed to post his fastest time of 1:23.7722 on lap 55. The IRWIN Racing car went a lap down after the race leader, Jamie Whincup, passed the #4 car on the main straight. In the later stages of the race Alex reported he was struggling with severe foot pain and the overall handling of the car. The race telemetry alerted the team to an engine problem with SBR’s engineers diagnosing there was an issue with the alternator. As Alex lost track position throughout the following laps it was decided to bring the car into the pits for the remainder of the race before re-entering to complete the last lap for championship points.

Alex Davison – Driver IRWIN Racing Car #4
“I made a mistake and clipped the tire bundle at turn one, I was behind another car and sort of blinded a bit by it and clipped it and cut the tire and we had to come in a change it. Then not long after the alternator had a problem and the battery started going flat so we had to stop, we charged it up enough at the end so I could do the last lap.

“My foot is not so good at the moment, apart from that I feel brand new, there wasn’t an issue at all as far as comfort levels go. I felt more acclimatised today; my cool suit worked the whole race so there were no dramas fitness wise.”

Davison’s debut for SBR wasn’t what the team or Alex himself had hoped for.

David Stuart – Team Manager
“These cars are unique compared to anything else anybodies ever driven, anybody that comes into the category from open wheelers to Porches will have a small period of adjustment. Alex has the determination and the ability and he will be harder on himself than we could ever be, he’s determined to make it work here at SBR. I was with his brother Will in his first race in ’06 here at Clipsal and he had the same sort of results but look at him today he’s standing on the podium so I believe Alex has every bit the potential that Will has as long as he doesn’t beat himself up too much we can enjoy celebrating a podium with him in a few more years.”

A tough race weekend for the team ended with SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen finishing equal 6th on 168 points while IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison finished equal 17th with 90 points overall.
Ross Stone – Team Principal

“It was a tough race and a tough place today. To have two 250km races to start off the season is always hard but I think we can take some positives out of it being that we have really good car speed and great chemistry within the team. We will move forward from here.”

The SBR crew will stay in Adelaide to work on the #4 and #9 cars on Monday in the lead up to the ‘Non-Championship’ Race 2.

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SP Tools Racing Test Day

March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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Van Gisbergen has first Hidden Valley hit out

July 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Round 6, SKYCITY Triple Crown, Hidden Valley, Darwin, NT
SP Tools Racing\'s Shane van Gisbergen was an impressive 11th fastest on his Hidden Valley debut

SP Tools Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen has had his first taste of Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway, hitting the track for today’s two-and-a-quarter hour practice session in the SP Tools Racing Falcon.

The 19-year-old Kiwi had a steady debut, posting the 11th fastest time after using the first 30-minute rookie session to learn the track and get a feel for the new Dunlop tyres.

Van Gisbergen enjoyed his first tour of the 2.9km circuit, adapting quickly to the new track and hot conditions.

Shane van Gisbergen, #9, SP Tools Racing
“I was out there on a new track with new tyres early today, there was a fair bit going on!

“I didn’t find the track too hard to pick up and it wasn’t too long until we were able to get stuck into tuning the SP Tools Falcon.

“We didn’t notice too much of a difference with the new tyres but we’ve only had a short time on them so it is hard to know what to expect.

“To be up there close to the top ten is a good start to the weekend for us.”

Visit Australia’s home of SP Tools – SP AIR TOOLS – SP HAND TOOLS – SCORPION POWERED PRODUCTS – SRT TOOLS

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