Rick Kelly, Jack Daniels Racing
John Maricic
The final practice session of the day proved challenging for Jack Daniel's Racing duo Rick Kelly and Tim Blanchard.
Once again both drivers elected to conserve their tyres while attempting to set a fast lap. This session, run in the heat of the day, once again threw up the additional challenges of an ever-warming track, making good lap times hard to come by.Throughout the session both Rick and Tim continued to make front and rear adjustments to the black and white Jack Daniel's Racing cars as they sought a sustainable balance to work across the 47 and 67 lap races, over the weekend.
At the end of the session Rick stopped the clocks less than one second off the fastest time and finished 21st fastest while Tim finished 28th.
Quickest in this session was championship leader Jamie Whincup followed by Victorian driver Tony D’Alberto, Michael Caruso and Whincup’s major title challenger Mark Wintertbottom.
Tim Blanchard: “It’s a tyre game today and you don’t really know where you are compared with everyone else until qualifying tomorrow.
We’d obviously like to be a bit further up but we are not a long way away and I’m confident with tomorrow when everyone is on equal tyres we should be a bit better off”.
Rick Kelly: “It’s frustrating at Winton that in the middle of the day it always drops off and gets a lot slower than in the morning or late in the day.
It also becomes more difficult to feel any changes and tune the car. We made good progress towards the end of the session and hope to capitalise on that tomorrow”.
Top 10
1 Jamie Whincup
2 Tony D’Alberto
3 Michael Caruso
4 Mark Winterbottom
5 Ford Will Davison
6 Jason Bright
7 James Moffat
8 Lee Holdsworth
9 David Reynolds
10 Lockwood Racing
21 Rick Kelly
28 Tim Blanchard
CHANGING TRACK CONDITIONS AT WINTON FOR PRACTICE THREE
The entire 28-car field took to the track for the first of two 30-minute practice sessions, with Rick Kelly in the #15 Jack Daniel's Racing car joining Tim Blanchard driving the #7 car.
Early in this session most drivers set their fastest times, many on new tyres, while the Jack Daniel's Racing team elected to run on old tyres. As the session continued the track temperature rose rapidly putting paid to any improvement in lap times.
By the end of the session Rick and Tim finished 27th and 28th respectively, just one second off the fastest time set by Dean Fiore.
Importantly both have kept a good tyre bank for later in the day and over the weekend.
Topping the timesheets was Dean Fiore with Alexandre Premat continuing his strong morning practice sessions times, claiming second fastest time. Last year’s Winton winner, Jason Bright was third fastest followed by championship leader Jamie Whincup.
BLANCHARD PLEASED WITH OPENING TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS
The first of four 30-minute practice sessions for the V8 Supercars saw Jack Daniel's Racing’s Tim Blanchard finish 11th and 12th fastest respectively.
Running on old soft compound tyres, Blanchard used the two opening sessions to set up the #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Commodore for the upcoming qualifying session and the two races over the weekend.
Blanchard was generally pleased with the car and his crew made suspension adjustments between sessions and some fine-tuning throughout the two sessions to give Tim the cornering balance he was comfortable with.
Rick Kelly will take to the track this afternoon with the entire 28-car field for the final two sessions.
Jack Daniel's Racing
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