Phillip Island: Team BOC qualifying report

PASSING BONANZA FOR RICHARDS

Drive of the day at Phillip Island went to Jason Richards, after he pushed his way from 11th to fifth in the first of today's two qualifying races for tomorrow's L&H 500.

Richards says it was one of his most enjoyable sprints after he passed Luke Youlden, David Reynolds, Jack Perkins, Warren Luff and Todd Kelly on track to turn around the Team BOC car's fortunes.

Combined with co-driver Andrew Jones' 23-place finish, which included the mandatory pit stop, it means the pair will start 12th for tomorrow's main race, the L&H 500, which begins at 13.35.

Jason Richards
Team BOC
"I really like Phillip Island; there are lots of passing opportunities and our cars are really strong in all those places, like the two hair pins. The corners prior to those, the car's very fast away with good braking ability so I could get a good run on those guys.

"I got a terrible start; if I had had a reasonable start we would have been in the top three in that race but the main thing is, it's 500kms and our car goes really well late in the stint. It looks after its tyres better than most."

Andrew Jones
Team BOC co-driver
"I got an atrocious start; there was a bit of a drama with the clutch on the warm-up lap. When I took off, it started to drag and got worse and worse so I knew it was not going to get away well.

"Obviously our car's good; I know we've got good race pace because Jason showed that in the first race. Twelfth is where we need to be tomorrow; this place is hard on tyres and saving tyres is one of our car's strengths so I'm optimistic."

-source: team boc