by 
27th
April, 2002
Round 3 Qualifying
Skaife
& Ambrose resume battle
Holden’s Mark Skaife and Ford’s Marcos
Ambrose are quickly developing an enthralling V8 Supercar rivalry,
both qualifying on the front row of the grid at the third round of the
championship at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway today.
It’s not at Brock versus Johnson levels yet, but heir apparent
Ambrose’s bold bid to dethrone the reigning V8 king has enlivened what
looked set to be a one-sided contest.
Skaife won out today, reversing the qualifying result at Phillip Island
a fortnight ago when Ambrose snared pole.
But new drivers have emerged as challengers, surprisingly led by
46-year-old veteran John Faulkner. In a stunning upset, Faulkner
came from nowhere to put his aging VT Commodore, one of the oldest cars
in the fleet, into third.
Sizzling under pressure
Skaife, though, was brilliant. He sizzled in qualifying to
grab provisional pole, only to clock an even faster time in the
pressure-cooker environment of the top ten shootout.
"That was about as good as you can get," Skaife said of his
shootout flier, a one-minute 31.38sec lap.
"It is a hard place to do a good lap, you need to be committed to
each corner and you have no idea what the grip is going to be.”
Ambrose was good, but not Skaife good. He trailed the Holden
Racing Team ace by more than six-tenths of a second.
"It was a beautiful lap by Skaife," said Ambrose.
"He drove like a man possessed and now we have it front of us.”
Shootout gatecrashers
Qualifying provided plenty of excitement, particularly the slower 50
percent group. Five drivers gatecrashed the top ten shootout from
the slower group: Max Wilson, Garth Tander, Faulkner, Steven Ellery and
Russell Ingall.
Faulkner’s show of speed was as unexpected as it was impressive.
The man himself was the only person in pitlane not surprised.
"Just feeling the car this morning, I knew we had a chance at the
top ten,” he said. "The car feels so much better,
everything works now.
"We reengineered all the steering, (it’s) been plaguing us for
two or three years. We've had four DNFs this year from four
steering failures.”
Faulkner will start alongside struggling Ford driver Steven Ellery,
making for a most unlikely second row that makes it
Holden-Ford-Holden-Ford at the head of the grid.
Briggs Motorsport’s Wilson is a talent. The pint-sized Brazilian
shot into second from the slower group and came out firing second last
in the shootout. He’s yet to master the one-lap dash, today
falling to eighth, but will challenge for future pole positions once he
does.
Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy held onto fifth, ahead of Tander and Ingall.
David Besnard and Steven Richards rounded out the top ten.
Those surprise results from the second qualifying group denied Jason
Bright, Todd Kelly, Craig Lowndes, John Bowe and Paul Radisich a chance
of improving their positions in the shootout.
More pre-qualifying ahead for some
Meanwhile, Brad Jones booked himself another pre-qualifying date –
his third – with a dismal performance today. Paul Weel, Jason
Bargwanna (aboard the car miraculously resurrected after its horror
crash a fortnight ago), Simon Wills, Craig Baird, Mark Larkham and
Rodney Forbes also face pre-qualifying in the next round at Hidden
Valley.
The order is only provisional, with the grid for tomorrow’s two 150km
races certain to be shuffled by tonight’s 20-minute twilight dash,
which was scheduled to start just after 5pm.
"We've got to come out of it (tonight’s race) reasonably well
off,” said Skaife. “We've got to keep our head about finishing
well tomorrow and scoring as many points as possible."
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