Asian Motor Sports

Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall is hoping that his previous record at Winton Motor Raceway will provide a solid foundation on which he can continue to build his V8 Supercar Championship assault this weekend.

Of all the venues on the V8 Supercar schedule, Winton has provided the most consistent results for the reigning V8 Supercar champion.

He won his first ever round at the venue in 1997 and in his eight appearances he has never finished outside the top 10 on an outright basis.

His one and only pole of his V8 Supercar career also came at Winton in 2001.

The V8 Supercars return to Winton this weekend after having a year off in 2005 and Ingall heads into round four as the championship leader.

Ironically, Ingall was 10th after qualifying two years ago and then produced one of his most productive top 10 shootout efforts, jumping five places on the grid.

He eventually finished fourth outright in what was a single 100-lap race around the tight and twisty North-East Victorian venue.

Ingall’s Stone Brothers Racing teammate James Courtney will be heading to Winton for the first time this weekend in his Caltex-lubricated Jeld-Wen Falcon.

Courtney’s speed has improved over the last couple of meetings, but continued bad luck has plagued his overall results.

Team Betta Electrical Ford goes into this weekend’s event with added confidence after a successful test day at Queensland Raceway last week.

The test saw Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup joined by their endurance counterparts, Richard Lyons and Allan Simonsen for the first time, with each driver completing over 70 laps.

Lowndes acknowledged Team Betta Electrical would head to the technical Winton Circuit this weekend with a similar race setup to that used at Queensland Raceway, but admitted weather would play a major role in car setup on the day.

Winton Motor Raceway holds fond memories for Jamie Whincup who had much success at the Victorian circuit in his Formula Ford days and also broke into his first ever V8 Supercar Top Ten Shootout at the circuit in 2003.

After a weekend of mixed results at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in which he salvaged 10th outright for the round the 23-year old is hoping for a trouble free run at Winton.

The V8 Supercar action gets underway at Winton Raceway on Friday, with drivers able to complete up to 40 laps under free practice. Saturday features qualifying and Top Ten Shootout action, with race 1 (100km) run in the afternoon.

Sunday features an opening reverse grid race (140kms), where starting positions are determined by reversing the finishing order from the opening race; half points only are on offer for the placings. The grid for race three is determined by combining both results, and full points are awarded to the winner of this 140km final sprint.