by 
17th
March, 2002
Rd1, Race 2
Skaife's
the boss on streets of Adelaide
While a squabble for minor points thoroughly entertained another
record crowd in Adelaide today, Holden Racing Team’s Mark Skaife was brilliantly boring out
in front to record another victory at the Clipsal 500.
The defending champion was faultless throughout the weekend, grabbing
the maximum bag of points with a commanding two-from-two result.
The win continued the factory team’s dominance in Adelaide, having not
lost at the event since its inception in 1999.
"We made a couple of small changes to the car overnight, obviously
it was good yesterday so we didn't want to do too much," Skaife
explained.
"I drove better today than yesterday, I made a few little mistakes
then and I was angry with myself, so this feels much better."
Skaife used the safety car to his advantage; HRT performing slick,
back-to-back pit stops, the second under yellow flags, during the first
half of the 78-lap race.
K-Mart Racing’s Greg Murphy beat Skaife into the first corner on the
opening lap, but was outpaced by his defacto teammate in the final
sprint to the line to finish second.
Dual podium results have Murphy well positioned in the championship
chase, 112 points behind maximum points-gather, Skaife.
"The car was easier to drive today, I'm a lot less buggered than I
was yesterday,” said Murphy, despite taxing cockpit conditions on a
day when temperatures soared over 35 degrees.
”I could see Skaife and I could have tried to catch him, but I thought
it was better to finish second and in the points rather than on my
roof,”he said.
Long haul becomes brief dash
A final caution period ending on lap 57 left a frantic 21-lap sprint
to the chequered flag for a number of podium hopefuls.
Steven Richards, making his championship debut for the Castrol Perkins
outfit, eventually won the battle, staving off a desperate challenge
from Craig Lowndes, who was playing a lone hand for Ford, over the final
few laps.
"It was nice to be in a good battle," said Richards.
"When the car's working half-right you don't get as hot, and I feel
a lot better today than I did yesterday."
Jason Bright, not surprisingly, stormed through the field after his
painful last-gasp failure yesterday to put maximum pressure on the
leaders.
Spinning twice late in the race, Bright again fought back. His
persistent attack on Lowndes for fourth went right down to the last
corner, but it was the 00 Falcon that won the drag race down the main
straight.
Garth Tander started from the front row, surviving a protest from some
who argued his controversial second place finish yesterday should have
been overturned, and went on to finish fifth. The result had him
third in overall points for the weekend.
Highs and lows…
The dark cloud that descended over the OzEmail Racing garage this
weekend had a silver lining, with John Bowe bringing his car home in
eighth, one ahead of Russell Ingall.
Marcos Ambrose was firmly entrenched in the lead bunch before his engine
let go ten laps from the finish.
"We would have been third for sure, points are everything, and we
lost a heap of points today,” Ambrose said. “It is very
disappointing.”
The last of three caution periods was instigated by Glenn Seton, who
slipped wide and heavily smacked the wall at the now notorious turn
eight sweeper.
Todd Kelly came to grief on the same corner on the final lap of the
race, but he was able to limp home and finish 12th.
Paul Radisich endured a horror weekend, walking away from the lucrative
event without a single championship point. Today, he retired early
with a sticking throttle.
"It just doesn't seem to be my weekend," said Radisich, who
was a doubtful starter this morning when soreness from his frightening
crash in Friday practice flared after the warm-up. A rushed trip
to hospital before the race cleared him of any serious injury.
00 Motorsport’s Neil Crompton also emerged point-less, with electrical
problems plaguing his brand-new Falcon throughout the weekend.
For full results, click
here
|