 by 
July 19th, 2003
Rd 7 qualifying
Skaife
and Ambrose feel each other out
LIKE prize fighters, V8
Supercar heavyweights Marcos Ambrose and Mark Skaife circled each other
in the ring before Skaife landed the softest of opening blows in
qualifying for round seven of the series at Queensland Raceway today.
This was only round one, and neither champ was in the mood to play.
Ambrose set the fastest time, Skaife eclipsed it, then both returned to
their corners to fight another day.
Skaife’s one and only hot lap, a lazy one-minute 10.87sec flier,
bettered Ambrose’s lone effort by just 0.07secs.
The real fight begins tomorrow, when the two combatants battle for pole
in the Top Ten Shootout ahead of the feature 300km race.
"It was a bit of a stand-off in the pits there for a while,"
said Ambrose, who is chasing
a record equalling fifth consecutive round win.
"We could have gone back out but we decided to look after our tyres
for the race. We were well in the top ten and that was not going to
change. All the glory comes on race day and that is what we are
after.”
Said Skaife: “We made a lot of little changes today, although the car
was quick in the third session I don’t think it was as good as it was
earlier.
“It is a difficult place now with the bumps, it is quite tricky to set
the car up to be right.”
Skaife’s teammate, Todd Kelly, powered by an all-new Holden Motorsport
engine, was third but more than three-tenths of a second slower.
Local teams failed to dominate the time sheets as many had predicted.
Ambrose’s teammate Russell Ingall survived the rigours of the slower
qualifying group to hold onto fifth, while Gold Coaster Paul Morris,
also powered by Holden’s new power plant, continued his impressive
weekend to claim sixth.
And Paul Radisich, from the Brisbane-based Briggs Motorsport team, also
qualified for the Shootout with the eighth fastest time.
Simon Wills, who is defending his Queensland crown won with David
Besnard last year, was a standout in qualifying his Team Dynamik
Commodore in a season-best fourth.
Wills said he burned more rubber than those ahead of him, but it was
“a big day” for the fledgling Adelaide-based team.
Championship leader Jason Bright finished seventh, 22 positions higher
than the man who sits second in the series, Steven Richards.
OzEmail Racing’s John Bowe and Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy also
qualified for tomorrow’s pole run-off, Murphy from the slower group.
Ford Performance Racing had a solid but unspectacular day, with Craig
Lowndes, Glenn Seton and David Besnard qualifying 11th, 12th and 14th
respectively.
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