Clipsal 500 Qualifying

[Ian]

1 4 Jeld-Wen Motorsport James Courtney
2 88 Team Vodafone Jamie Whincup
3 16 Toll HSV Dealer Team Garth Tander
4 5 Ford Performance Racing Mark Winterbottom
5 3 Tasman Motorsport Jason Richards
6 888 Team Vodafone Craig Lowndes
7 22 Holden Racing Team Todd Kelly Holden
8 9 Caltex Racing Russell Ingall
9 17 Jim Beam Racing Steven Johnson
10 33 Valvoline Cummins Race Team Lee Holdsworth
11 51 Tasman Motorsport Greg Murphy
12 25 Fujitsu Racing Jason Bright
13 18 Jim Beam Racing Will Davison
14 34 Valvoline Cummins Race Team Dean Canto
15 1 Toll HSV Dealer Team Rick Kelly Holden
16 6 Ford Performance Racing Steven Richards
17 2 Holden Racing Team Mark Skaife
18 12 Team BOC Andrew Jones
19 10 WPS Racing Jason Bargwanna
20 20 Supercheap Auto Racing Paul Dumbrell
21 111 Glenfords Racing John Bowe Ford
22 67 Team Sirromet Wines Paul Morris
23 8 WPS Racing Max Wilson
24 50 Supercheap Auto Racing Cameron McConville
25 39 Team Sirromet Wines Fabian Coulthard
26 11 Jack Daniel's Racing Jack Perkins
27 26 IRWIN Racing Alan Gurr
28 14 Team BOC Brad Jones
29 55 Autobarn Racing Steve Owen
30 021 Team Kiwi Racing Adam Macrow
31 7 Jack Daniel's Racing Shane Price



From the Advertiser today:


Courtney repays with top 10 spot
STUART INNES
March 03, 2007 01:15am
JAMES Courtney - who admits to having done some soul-searching after bashing and crashing the Stone Brothers Racing Falcon in his first race for the team at the Clipsal 500 last year - was happy to repay by taking a hard-earnt pole position yesterday for today's first 250km race.

Courtney emerged on top, his first pole position in V8 Supercars, in the new qualifying format that shook out some of the big names who will have to scrap hard to work their way through in this afternoon's race.
New champion Rick Kelly (Toll-HSV Commodore), five-times champion and fastest in yesterday' first practice session Mark Skaife (Holden Racing Team Commodore) and Steven Richards (Ford Performance Racing Falcon) were among those who did not make the final 10 to run off for pole position.

Courtney's best lap time of 1min 22.35sec in yesterday's final 10 run-off compares with the 1:21.61 set last year by Skaife, yesterday's hot weather being the difference.

Courtney in the Jeld-Wen sponsored Falcon beat Jamie Whincup (Vodafone Falcon) by .1 of a second and was less than .2sec ahead of Garth Tander (Toll-HSV Commodore).

Fourth place in today's start grid will be taken by FPR driver Mark Winterbottom (Orrcon Falcon) and the third row filled by Jason Richards (Tasman Motorsport Commodore) and former racer winner Craig Lowndes (Vodafone Falcon).

Courtney, 26, a former British Formula Fod champion and Japanese Formula 3 champion, had a crashing, smashing start to his first season last year but finished the year strongly, winning the rookie of the year award.

"My soul searching was done after this race last year," he said of the joy of paying back the faith in him held by Stone Brothers.

"It's a nice surprise to qualify on pole."

Lap times were gradually clipped back in yesterday's two practice sessions, the first led by Skaife and the second by Winterbottom.

Then came the afternoon first use of the new qualifying sessions. Jason Richards was quickest in the first 15 minute session (1min 22.562) from which the fastest 20 progressed, John Bowe being the unlucky 21st.

The second 15 minutes was to decide the final 10 cars. Courtney was fastest (1min 22.38sec) and his Stone Brothers team-mate Russell Ingall (Caltex Falcon) took 10th, bumping Greg Murphy to 11th. "We can't complain being just out of the top 10," a pragmatic Murphy said.

The final 15-minute session of the top 10, all on the track at once, was gripping. Again Courtney set the pace. With just two minutes to go, Winterbottom leap-frogged from 10th to fourth quickest.

Tander said he had tried used tyres in a morning practice session and was happy with the time, indicating the new VE Commodore would be a good race car, separate to a qualifying car. "As a race package it feels better than last year's VZ," Tander said.

He said team-mate Rick Kelly had an incorrect set-up and had to play catch-up by using good tyres just to get into the top 20, leaving him with no aces to play to try for the top 10.

"Rick is in 15th and guys have won the race from further back than that," Tander said.

Whincup, winner of last year's Clipsal 500, said he was looking forward from starting from the front row today. "The drag race with James to the first corner should be fun," he said.

The V8 Supercars will have their 250km race from 2.30pm today and the other, also over 78 laps of the street circuit, at 2.30pm tomorrow.