RACE ONE REPORT SANDOWN PARK, VICTORIA
09/06/2008

Sunday has been pretty disappointing for the FRSR Team with the team struggling to find a good set up for Qualifying and the retiring from Race One with damage.

“We could not find the right balance with the car in qualifying and finished twenty ninth”, Team owner Jim Morton said. “Michael has been struggling a little with the brakes here and this is a very critical part of the car performance here with two very long straights. Michael’s open wheeler background has trained him to be a left foot braker and we are now looking to make some slight adjustments to his technique to match the cars setup”, he said.

The first race saw Michael make good presses but two large hits in the rear of the car pushed our car into the one in front which damaged the front bar. The bar eventually dislodged and jammed back under the car, damaging the radiator and some other parts causing the car to retire.

“It’s disappointing but it’s no good pontificating on the rights and wrongs, we will get the car back in top shape for race two”, FRSR Commercial Manager, Kim White said. “We definitely improved the set up for the race and so we can expect to make good progress in race two and three”, he said. 

“Not sure what pontificating means but its harsh when you get put out through others drivers impatience”, Driver, Michael Patrizi said. “The damage was small but not fixable in time to get back out. The team did a great job in giving me a more comfortable race package and I’m looking forward to tomorrow”, he said.

FRSR’s endurance co driver Grant Denyer came through for a great tenth in race one of the Fujitsu V8 Development Championship after practice woes and finished second in the Mini race to maintain his championship lead.

Team Rookie, Brad Lowe had a crash in qualifying but came back to tenth in race one.