Off-contract Russell Ingall showed there’s fight left in the old dog yet by winning the ‘Friday Grand Prix’ at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300 at Queensland Raceway today.
On his home track where his record is very strong Ingall, also celebrating being equal with the great Peter Brock on 212 race starts, claimed fastest in his Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore from Craig Lowndes (TeamVodafone) and Lee Holdsworth (Irwin Racing).
As the oldest man in the field and a cunning veteran of the game, Ingall relished a resurfaced track and an “evil” car to post a 1.09.68s lap which he says will be competitive over the weekend but not race winning.
“I think today was more enjoyable because the car was pretty evil, it wasn’t happy at all. The good thing about it is you get more enjoyment in making an average car good,” Ingall said.
“I started to panic a little bit in the first session and worked logically through it until the end. We had a swing at it and all of a sudden we threw something in it that sparked it up. Then we went ‘ooh I think we might have a good toy here’.
“Make no mistake after ten laps here you are still going to be hanging on to the big girl. You are not going to be seeing cars in a straight line. We left a bit on the table.”
After reintroducing himself to the media corps afterwards, Ingall became retrospective and appreciative of finishing the fastest of the 28-man field.
“I’ve forgotten the names but I remember the faces,” he said. “These sort of days become more special. Craig might take it a little bit for granted sometimes but on my side it’s nice to know you can still pull a lap time and be competitive.”
Ingall even admitting to spying on Lowndes during a recent test day here, noting that the Champion Holden driver was posting much faster laps than today.
But Ingall has statistics on his side as one of the most successful drivers at Queensland Raceway with top three results in 18 of his 25 starts and qualifying in the top ten 15 times from 18 attempts.
“We didn’t have too much left on the table with what we’ve got today but we know what we have tomorrow,” said Lowndes.
Holdsworth is verging on a breakthrough since switching to the Irwin Ford and Stone Brothers Racing at the start of the year.
“We have been throwing a lot at it,” Holdsworth said. “It’s time to consolidate this weekend and try to get a decent result. We have picked up some gains in the last few events and now we are at a stage where we can put it together.”
Series leader Jamie Whincup finished the session in fifth, ahead of Fujitsu Racing's Alex Premat, Stone Brothers Racing duo Tim Slade and Shane van Gisbergen.
Jim Beam Racing's Steve Johnson finished the final practice in ninth with Tekno Autosports' Jonathon Webb rounding out the top ten.
Bottle-O Racing's David Reynolds was the highest of the factory Ford trio in fourth. Will Davison was 11th while Mark Winterbottom finished well down in 24th.
The V8 Supercars will be back on track tomorrow morning (Sat) at 10.10am local time for Practice 4, ahead of Qualifying at 1.25pm and Race 16 at 4.05pm.
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