Gold Coaster Ryal Harris set the early pace in practice for Round 3 of the East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series at Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin earlier today (Friday, 19th June). In the combined times from both practice sessions, Harris was 3/100ths faster than Matt Stone Racing Teammate and former V8 Ute Champ, Chris Pither.
Less than one second separated the top half of the field, third fastest was David Sieder’s Mango Credit Holden only 1/10th of the fastest Ford, with Ryan Hansford, Andrew Fisher, Kris Walton, George Miedecke, Nathan Pretty, Gerard McLeod and Perth driver Rhys McNally in the Stratco Holden rounding out the top 10.
Harris set the time in hot conditions, breaking the lap record on the newly re-surfaced track in a time of 1:20.7452. Adam Majoram’s Auto One Holden, currently second in the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship, was just outside the top 10, while V8 Ute Rookie Ashley Jarvis impressed in his first V8 Ute run to be mid-field in the Peters Motorsport Ford. The Rookie has raced in Geminis and Speedcars for 5 years, and is currently racing in the Saloon Car national series.
Andrew Fisher, Gerard McLeod and Nathan Pretty all had off track excursions, with the red flag shortening the session after McLeod was beached in the Turn 10 sand trap.
“The new track surface is great, and even though I am carrying the 40kg success ballast, this track flows pretty well, so I can get the most out of the Holiday For Life Ford. If there were more stop/start corners here, or a climb up the hill, it would probably hurt us a little more,” Harris said.
Tomorrow’s ARMOR ALL Qualifying session will again be split into two parts, with all Utes on track for the first 12 minutes, the fastest ten then progressing to a five minute shootout to determine the $1,000 ARMOR ALL Cash winner. A change to the tyre rule for 2015 will allow teams during qualifying access to their full tyre bank of six tyres, which should result in teams pushing even harder in qualifying.
Andrew Fisher, Layton Barker, Danny Buzadzic and Bruce Oaklands were all hit with a $500 suspended fine until the end of the year for Pit Lane infringement.
Qualifying will start at 10.30 am, with Race 1 (10 laps) from 3.10 pm.
Harris continues to lead the series on 291 points, from Adam Marjoram on 263, Ford driver George Miedecke 7 points further back.
Qualifying and all 3 races will be televised live by Fox Sports over the weekend.
See below top ten results from combined practice 1 58 Holiday For Life Ryal Harris Ford Falcon FG 1:20.7452R 2 33 All Purpose Pest Control Chris Pither Ford Falcon FG 1:20.7821 3 3 Mango Credit David Sieders Holden Commodore VE 1:20.8809 4 6 Multispares Racing Ryan Hansford Ford Falcon FG 1:20.9312 5 9 Jesus Racing Andrew Fisher Ford Falcon FG 1:20.9607 6 68 Rentco Racing Kris Walton Ford Falcon FG 1:21.0307 7 35 iSeek Racing / ees.com George Miedecke Ford Falcon FG 1:21.0917 8 56 Burbank Racing Nathan Pretty Holden Commodore VE 1:21.0938 9 50 RYCO 24-7 / Ausbuild NT Gerard McLeod Holden Commodore VE 1:21.1350 10 26 Stratco Racing Rhys McNally Holden Commodore VE 1:21.1613
