Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

AUSF3: Adelaide: Series Friday qualifying report

JOEY HANGS IT OUT TO SCORE SECOND F3 CLIPSAL POLE ACCUSTOMED to the greasy, damp and cool conditions presented to him, Joey Foster has literally let it all hang out to score his second Yorkshire Investments Pole Award in as many attempts this ...

JOEY HANGS IT OUT TO SCORE SECOND F3 CLIPSAL POLE

ACCUSTOMED to the greasy, damp and cool conditions presented to him, Joey Foster has literally let it all hang out to score his second Yorkshire Investments Pole Award in as many attempts this morning at the Clipsal 500.

A wild, sideways and aggressive lap at the end of the second 20-minute session that set the grid for the Sunday race saw the man from Cornwall repeat his qualifying effort from yesterday, to lead Tim Macrow and Mathew Sofi on Sunday's grid.

Foster is now $400 richer thanks to his double-pole effort in Adelaide and has taken an early step towards the season-ending $1000 bonus to the driver who scores the most pole wins this year.

Due to the damp conditions - due to a ‘washed' track that was still drying and some overnight dew - Foster's time of 1m19.6822 was over a second slower than his track-record best yesterday, but half a second up on Macrow's time.

A last-minute improvement lifted AmPro tools driver Mathew Sofi to third place, though some seven-tenths from Fosters impressive time. The top seven cars are split by under two seconds, indicating a close battle in tomorrow's first 12-lap race.

Tom Tweedie was a fantastic fourth in his #19 ‘Team Tom' Dallara and was the fastest of the National Class runners for 2004-spec cars, whilst Mathew Radisich rebounded from an early-session trip across the Senna chicane gravel trap to finish fifth.

"Quite simply I couldn't ask for anything more," Joey Foster said. "Two pole positions from two sessions is fantastic. It was a challenging session as the track was very slippery but I gave it absolutely everything and we got a great result.

"The races are going to be very good, but hopefully we can get away and get a buffer over the field. It's harder to lead the race than it is to chase, though, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

"I am enjoying my time here so much. The team is working well, the car is great and the track is amazing. It's awesome."

Macrow was philosophical about once again qualifying second - but said that the mere fact they were on the money was a strong starting point to the year.

"I think we went a bit the wrong way from yesterday, the car wasn't quite as good," he said. "But really I'm still very happy. Given we only did this deal to be here on Monday to achieve what we have with a very limited amount of time is fantastic. Hopefully we can keep this up for the rest of the weekend and have a good start to the championship.

"It's great to be here and back in a car. I'm having a heap of fun and really enjoying my driving."

Further down the field, South Aussie Jesse Wakeman had a substantially better day than yesterday - by the fact that he actually completed more than one full lap of the 3.22km Adelaide parklands circuit.

Wakeman was plagued yesterday by several mechanical dramas but today his #52 R-Tek Motorsport Dallara ran perfectly and enabled the 21-year-old from Kersbrook to qualify third in the National Class, behind last year's champion Chris Gilmour.

"It was just nice to get laps," he enthused. "There are a few spots where I know I can find time so I'm not that worried at all about our lap time. I know there is more from me and from the car but we are just two full sessions and about 20 laps behind everyone else.

"The team has done a good job to get back to where we are now and I'm looking forward to racing again tomorrow."

Saturday action at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide will feature race one of the 2009 Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship, the 12-lap affair to immediately proceed the first leg of the V8 Supercar race at 1pm.

-credit: formula3.com.au

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Will Bratt 2008 season review
Next article Italia: RC Motorsport joins series

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA