Townsville: Team BOC race 2 report

RICHARDS SLAMS EARLY CONTACT

Coming from the back of the grid is a specialty of Team BOC's Jason Richards but after qualifying eighth at Townsville today he says he should not have had to.

The culprit was Steven Richards, who turned JR around in the early stages of today's race, dropping him to the back of the field. Now both JR and Team Boss Brad Jones have spoken out about the incident, which is the second involving the two Kiwis this year.

JR raced back to mid-field by lap 26 but made a slip and had to do it all again. Amazingly he finished the race eighth, which is a solid result as the Championship heads into a break before the enduros in nine weeks' time.

Jason Richards
Team BOC
"I don't know what Richo was doing; he just nailed me and ruined my race. I was at the apex and he hit me from behind; it was clearly some form of mistake, which with that guy is constant. Unfortunately I often seem to be on the receiving end of it. I DNF'd when he made contact with me at the Clipsal 500 earlier this year, my only none-finish so far, and I thought today was going to be an action replay because I spun at the front of the field with 20 cars behind me. Fortunately the car didn't get any major damage and I was able to put in some good fast laps and recover.

"I had to make so many passes I can't even begin to list them. The worst scenario was when I was pushing on after the pit stop. The track was breaking up and I ran a bit wide onto the gravel and into the fence. That was the only blot on my copy book; I lost a few spots and thought that might be the end of my come-back but eighth is a great result considering."

Brad Jones
Team Co-Owner
"JR was up and down like a yo-yo in that race. He got turned around early by Steve Richards and we were very disappointed there was nothing done about that. It will be interesting to see what happens after the race because I thought it was pretty clear that he turned JR around.

"Then he went from the back to mid-field, made a mistake and went to the back again; he just kept pushing forward. That car definitely had the speed to be in the top five today. Going into the enduros it's all looking quite promising."

-source: team boc