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CAN THE LEADING HOLDEN DRIVERS BE STOPPED AT ORAN PARK?
Friday, 17 August 2007
Toll HSV Holden drivers Garth Tander and Rick Kelly have won three of the seven rounds held so far in the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series and led 426 of the 881 laps contested to be sitting one-two in the championship standings.
Tander’s outstanding performance, in a total domination of the three-race Queensland round last month, elevated him to the top of the points table entering this weekend’s Jim Beam 400 at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway.
With the round being the final ‘sprint’ event prior to the two endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, rival teams are looking to bridge the gap on the front running pair.
A 74-point buffer has been established over their nearest rival, Jamie Whincup, with his TeamVodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes following closely behind.
The next three V8 Supercar events will provide the ideal pre-cursor to this year’s three-race V8 Supercar Challenge which headlines alongside a round of the Champ Car World Series at this year’s Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast from October 18-21.
The Oran Park Raceway has been dominated by Ford drivers over the past four years with Marcos Ambrose celebrating back-to-back victories in 2003 and 2004 followed by Russell Ingall in 2005 and Lowndes last year.
Whincup and Lowndes are the only two Ford drivers to be victorious in a round so far this year and should again figure prominently this weekend.
The Holden Racing Team’s Todd Kelly will celebrate his 100th Championship round start at Oran Park.
The 2005 Bathurst Champion made his series debut in a Holden Young Lions Commodore at Eastern Creek’s 1999 season opener, but it was dampened by a massive accident at the high-speed first corner.
His career tally currently stands at nine round wins (the most recent being on top of the points tally overall at the Clipsal 500) and five pole positions. His best championship finish was fourth in 2005 and Kelly’s best Oran Park result remains fifth in 2004.
Perhaps the man to watch at Oran Park will again be acclaimed veteran Mark Skaife who is currently level pegging with Allan Moffat as the driver with the most round wins at the circuit at six apiece.
This effort included four straight from 1999 to 2002. He has had four pole positions at Oran Park in the past and hasn’t started any further back than the front two rows since 1996 – some 11 years ago!
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Tander’s outstanding performance, in a total domination of the three-race Queensland round last month, elevated him to the top of the points table entering this weekend’s Jim Beam 400 at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway.
With the round being the final ‘sprint’ event prior to the two endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, rival teams are looking to bridge the gap on the front running pair.
A 74-point buffer has been established over their nearest rival, Jamie Whincup, with his TeamVodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes following closely behind.
The next three V8 Supercar events will provide the ideal pre-cursor to this year’s three-race V8 Supercar Challenge which headlines alongside a round of the Champ Car World Series at this year’s Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast from October 18-21.
The Oran Park Raceway has been dominated by Ford drivers over the past four years with Marcos Ambrose celebrating back-to-back victories in 2003 and 2004 followed by Russell Ingall in 2005 and Lowndes last year.
Whincup and Lowndes are the only two Ford drivers to be victorious in a round so far this year and should again figure prominently this weekend.
The Holden Racing Team’s Todd Kelly will celebrate his 100th Championship round start at Oran Park.
The 2005 Bathurst Champion made his series debut in a Holden Young Lions Commodore at Eastern Creek’s 1999 season opener, but it was dampened by a massive accident at the high-speed first corner.
His career tally currently stands at nine round wins (the most recent being on top of the points tally overall at the Clipsal 500) and five pole positions. His best championship finish was fourth in 2005 and Kelly’s best Oran Park result remains fifth in 2004.
Perhaps the man to watch at Oran Park will again be acclaimed veteran Mark Skaife who is currently level pegging with Allan Moffat as the driver with the most round wins at the circuit at six apiece.
This effort included four straight from 1999 to 2002. He has had four pole positions at Oran Park in the past and hasn’t started any further back than the front two rows since 1996 – some 11 years ago!
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