AUSSIE RACING CARS TESTING SMASHES RECORDS

14 July 2008 The Aussie Racing Car competitors have been taking advantage of the big mid season layoff to wring some extra speed from the little projectiles. Several of the category Championship contenders have headed to Winton which is the venue for the next round with the V8 Supercar Circus. Peter Carr in the Infac Financial Services Falcon and Darren Chamberlains Motorsport Falcon were first to turn a wheel on the southern layout and some pretty smart times were seen on the clocks. Carr was consistently under the track record with times in the low 33’s and a best of 33 dead. The Infac Team have really stepped up to the challenge this season now they understand the car better, Carr’s times and race performance has now built to the point where he can genuinely be considered to be a real title contender and his testing times have really thrown down the gauntlet for a race win at Winton. “We just couldn’t get the pace out of the car last season but this year I am full of enthusiasm as we seem to have got the right mix of pace and race consistency to be able to take it up to the leaders” said Carr after the Winton test, “I am very happy with our times today and am really looking forward to the round. Nick Simmons was as usual on the pace straight out of the box in the Simmons Contracting Falcon but in the second session he was unlucky to break 3rd gear on the Winton bumps which put paid to the test. In the following week Richie Rapa driving the Fabre Falcon and Kyle Clews in the Australec Team car hit the track at Winton as well. Both drivers recorded a 33.1 only a tenth slower than Carr. Rapa did the most laps in 5 sessions over the day with Team Engineer Paul Rietdyk concentrating on chassis balance that would enable Rapa to maintain a more consistent race pace across all laps of the 4 heats that will make up the round. Clews on the other hand only did a handful of laps across 4 sessions working on his early race pace set up as he believes it is important to establish a gain early particularly at Winton as overtaking is much harder there. Clews was thrilled with the test, “The new car is just fantastic, we didn’t want to do too many laps as I didn’t want to wear it out, I feel comfortable with the track which will definitely provide more grip at the meeting which will certainly see our times at this session going even lower”. Ruth Bowler in the Armstrong Motorsport Team Falcon has competed in more Aussie Racing Car events than any other female. She chose to do some testing at the Maserati Club Winton Supersprint event held recently. Whilst her lap times weren’t quite as quick as the aforementioned Teams she settled well in to the car and the track returning some respectable times. “I am really enjoying the experience behind the wheel of an Aussie Racing Car and it was fantastic to get out on the track and compete against some pretty exotic machinery in our club” said Ruth “I can now confidently go in to the next round with some laps of Winton under my belt” A huge field of Aussie Racing Cars will hit the track for round 4 of the Championship in 3 weeks time on 1st to 3rd August. from: http://www.aussieracingcars.com.au/news129.htm