DENYER'S DYNAMIC QUALIFYING RUN IN SANDOWN MINI CHALLENGE
Grant Denyer has put his #95 DecoRug Racing JCW MINI on pole position for tomorrow’s first race of the 2009 MINI Challenge (delivered by Pizza Capers) at Sandown Motor Raceway after an impressive qualifying run that topped the time sheets.
He only did it though by a margin of 7/10,000th’s of a second!
Denyer’s 1.24.4986 was good enough to edge out livewire West Aussie Nathan Caratti, series leader Paul Stokell and Queensland wild card John Magro.
“I think Grant’s Dorian (timer) must be 5cm closer to the front of his car than mine,” joked Caratti after the session, “I can’t believe I missed pole by that much! Man that’s close.”
North Queensland Mango farmer John Magro was pleased with his top five result and believes that he can only get quicker.
“We had some problems with the car in practice,” he conceded, “and we only just got it rectified before the qualifying session so we haven’t really had time to work the best out of the car. I followed (Nathan) Caratti around for that last lap and it worked because we got three positions further up the order.”
Scott Bargwanna rewarded the crew for all their hard work in repairing the ROCK Energy Drinks #79 with a stout fifth place result, whilst sixth place was occupied by V8DVS racer Geoff Emery (in his second round) whilst Victorian University Student David Stillwell timed in with seventh.
Brendon “BJ” Cook was eighth in the second of the ROCK Energy Drinks / Rogue Lager entries.
Ninth car home in qualifying was Brendan Cook in the Transquip Hire #43 – an effort that was his best in MINI Challenge so far.
“The car was fantastic, it made so much difference to the way I could drive the car. I told the boys the car was awesome. I’m really happy,” smiled the affable Queenslander.
Three time Olympic Gold Medallist James Tomkins enjoyed his first session behind the wheel of the Pizza Capers liveried “UBER Star” #50 and finished up and impressive 10th.
“I warmed the tyres up that time,” grinned the 6ft 6” rowing legend, “that was a lot of fun. The cars are very responsive and I’m hoping to work on my times over the weekend.”
Tomkins was dismayed to later learn that his car was not able to meet the minimum weight requirements and his time was stripped - forcing him to start Saturday's race from the rear.
Eleventh in times was Queenslander Grant Sherrin (who fired the #7 Sherrin Rentals car off the circuit early in the session) ahead of John Modystach (Prosurv #26) and MINI Challenge debutants Tony Bates (Alternate Freight Service) and Andrew Fisher (Jesus All About Life).
Bates and Fisher were last minute inclusions into the field.
Livewire Sydneysider Chris Alajajian had an unfortunate moment on the opening lap of the session when he skimmed the ripple strip and spun the #9 Standox Paints entry in turn four, making contact with the wall.
“It wasn’t a big crash, but I bent the steering and couldn’t keep going. Looks like I’m starting from the back tomorrow,” he frowned.
