AUS: Peter Hackett Bathurst summary

TOP TEN BATHURST FINISH FOR PETER HACKETT IN GT ROUND FIVE

October 10, 2010 - VodkaO Lamborghini Gallardo driver Peter Hackett has endured a Bathurst weekend of highs and lows in the 5th round of the Australian GT Championship held at the Mount Panorama circuit over the weekend.

The Victorian driver set the third fastest lap time of opening practice on Thursday, despite a number of red flag stopagges due to the damp and "green" circuit conditions. Hackett made his intentions clear for the Bathurst round of the Australian GT Championship in the second practice session that afternoon, by topping the timesheets with a 2:16.26s lap.

Qualifying proved to be more difficult to find a clear lap, Hackett continually encountering slower traffic on each of his flying laps. The Lamborghini Gallardo driver qualified 6th with a significanty improved lap time of 2:12.79 across the challenging 6.2 kilometre circuit.

Saturday morning's opening race of the round got the green light at 8;00am in cool but sunny conditions. It proved to be a very short lived event for Hackett, who made light contact with a tyrewall when trying to overtake Porsche 997 Cup Car driver Max Twigg at the Skyline section of the circuit on the second lap. Although relatively minor, the impact was enough to break the right rear upright (suspension component), sending his VodkaO Lamborghini Gallardo into a spin. No other competitors were involved in the incident that marked the early end of his race. Aston Martin DBR 9 driver Tony Quinn won the race ahead of Klark Quinn in a Mosler MT900 and Championship leader David Wall in a Porsche 997 Cup Car.

The second and final race of the Bathurst round took place at midday Saturday in sunny conditions. Hackett began a 12 lap blitz from the rear of the 25 car field that saw the Victorian driver finish 10th and recovering some valuable points towards the Championship. The race delivered a mirror result from the earlier event, with Tony Quinn making it an Aston Martin Mount Panorama double ahead of Klark Quinn and David Wall.

Although not the result Hackett was seeking from this penultimate Australian GT Championship round for 2010, the VodkaO Lamborghini driver always enjoys competing at Australia's most spectactular and unforgiving race circuits.

"Bathurst is a very unforgiving place and my race one accident was a classic example of how Mount Panorama can bite even with the slightest of impacts. Even though we didn't show it in qualifying, we had developed faster set-ups after each session and making up 15 places over 12 laps in the second race proved that we had a car which should have been on the podium here. While my Championship challenge took a major hit this weekend, I am looking forward to returning to the podium at Homebush in December," Peter said.

The 6th and final round of the VodkaO Australian GT Championship takes place from December 3-5 at Sydney's (Homebush) Olympic Park street circuit.

-source: marinellipr.com.au