Walkinshaw Racing pair Tim Slade and James Courtney are looking to improve their fortunes at this weekend’s UBET Perth SuperSprint.
After finishing first and second in Friday practice, the pair is poised to eliminate bad memories – Slade of a poor result in Tasmania, and Courtney of his terrible history at Barbagallo Raceway.
Supercheap Auto Racing driver Slade topped the timesheets today, helping alleviate the pain of an embarrassing error in strategy in the 200km race in Tasmania that saw him marooned in pit lane after a ‘splash and dash’ of fuel.
Tim Slade topped the timesheets today in practice at the UBET Perth SuperSprint
“When you do 82 of 84 laps, and DNF because of something like that, it’s pretty disappointing. But we move on, and look to make this weekend a lot more positive.”
Slade was shocked to see the fuel warning with four laps to go, when having a strong run inside the top 10.
“I ran out of fuel,” the Supercheap Auto racer said simply. “I’m sure the boys have got it sorted out and it won’t happen again…it was as much as a surprise to them as it was to me.
“I had to pit with two laps to go, and as I was leaving the pit box the chequered flag went out, and pit lane closed.”
As Slade hunts for his maiden V8 Supercars race win, his teammate, Holden Racing Team driver James Courtney, will be looking for his first podium result at Barbagallo Raceway.
He’s hoping to improve on his best ever finish here – 4th place in 2009 – this weekend, but he expressed that it won’t be easy and knows it’s as much about his team’s smarts as his driving ability this weekend.
“It’s going to be a tyre conservation race, you’re going to need to be really careful with those tyres,” Courtney said.
“It will be tough to get through Sunday, and if you get carried away you’re going to be in a whole world of hurt come late in the race.
“It’s up to the drivers to control. That and for the teams with strategy to really monitor track temperature and that kind of thing but also what the cars around us are doing.”
“Someone might get away early in the race, but we’re going to have to exercise some self-control.”
Behind Courtney – who shared the #22 with Pirtek Enduro Cup co-driver Jack Perkins – was Pepsi Max Crew driver Mark Winterbottom in third.
The rest of the top 10 was David Reynolds, Nick Percat, Fabian Coulthard, Scott McLaughlin, Lee Holdsworth, Will Davison and Ash Walsh.
The top seven cars were separated by less than 0.3sec, with 1.49sec between the 25-car field.
The Red Bulls were down the order, with Championship leader Jamie Whincup 14th and Craig Lowndes 16th.
Lowndes, poised on the brink of an historic 100th career victory, echoed Courtney’s sentiment that it will be a tough weekend of racing.
“No doubt Sunday will be the critical day out of the two. It’s almost like the tortoise and the hare – you want to be the tortoise you might be ok, if you want to be the hare you’ll have to have other options up your sleeve.”
“I know we're a little bit further down the time sheet, but I'm actually pretty happy with what we've achieved. We're just trying to search for that balanced car and I think we've got it."