PUKEKOHE FINALE SATURDAY DRIVER QUOTES

The final time that the Repco Supercars will race at Pukekohe saw Will davison win Saturdays race from kiwi Andre Heimgartner and polesitter Cameron Waters, we’ve colated the driver quotes sent to us so you can read what each driver had to say after race 27.

Shell V-Power Racing Team

Anton De Pasquale – No. 11 Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang GT
Practice 2 – 6^th (Fastest Time: 1m02.335s)
Qualifying – 4^th (Fastest Time: 1m02.203s)
Race 27 – 6^th (Fastest Time: 1m03.301s)
 

Will Davison – No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang GT
Practice 2 – 1^st (Fastest Time: 1m02.152s)
Qualifying – 2^nd (Fastest Time: 1m02.068s)
Race 27 – 1^st (Fastest Time: 1m02.955s)

DE PASQUALE QUOTE
“It was a day of ups and downs; we had a good start to the race and sort of lost a few spots in the pit stop sequence and everything.
 
“We will go again tomorrow; we are there thereabouts and make a couple of changes to see how we fare.”

DAVISON QUOTE
“It was a really special moment, racing here is always big, particularly for the New Zealand drivers every year. You see over the years, the Murphs, the Scottys, the Shanes and Andre, it was a big moment for him today.
 
“Knowing it’s the last event here as well, the crowd is amazing and the passion of the fans is insane. It’s a really good feeling to be here and a lot of supporters of our team, it’s an iconic team here. It was very cool, good race and it’s sad we aren’t going to be coming to these sorts of circuits any longer.”

Red Bull Ampol Racing Team

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Practice 2 – 11th (1:02.5819)
Qualifying, Race 27 – Eighth (1:02.4311)
Race 27 – Seventh

Championship standings – Sixth (1712 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Practice 2 – Fifth (1:02.2580)
Qualifying, Race 27 – Seventh (1:02.3355)
Race 27 – Fifth

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“We had a pretty decent first day. We qualified eighth so I started next to Shane (van Gisbergen). We went pretty aggressive with the strategy and tried to get some clean air. We were reasonably fast throughout the race – I think we were in the top three in pace when we were in clean air, but some other drivers filtered out in front of me and we got stuck there for the rest of the race. I finished P7 in the end and managed to gain a spot, but that’s probably where our pace was today. Overall, we’re lacking a bit of speed but I’ve got no doubt the team will make it a bit faster overnight and we’ve gained a lot of knowledge today. We need to work on our qualifying results for tomorrow, both cars qualified on the fourth row and qualifying is so important here because it’s a hard track to pass and the aero wash is really bad, especially in the first and last sectors. I’m really slow in sector one, but the rest of the track we’re really competitive. We just need to fix that issue for both cars overnight, and if we can make those changes I think we’ll be pretty competitive tomorrow.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“We changed three tyres in today’s race so we could try and get as close to our starting position and also claim the fastest lap and the bonus points that come with that. We had a crack at the fastest lap because we really struggled to pass. My car was struggling with the high-speed areas of the track, and that’s what we’ll be focussing on tonight because we need to be better in those areas. Even though the safety car came out towards the end of the race, it was hard to follow in the high-speed areas and I only managed to pass Anton (de Pasquale) late in the race. Unfortunately, in qualifying P7 was all we had. We’ll have a sit down with the engineering group tonight, make some changes and hopefully do better tomorrow.”

Penrite Racing

Race 27

Reynolds: P9   Holdsworth: P12

David Reynolds, said: “I was the beneficiary of the crash at the start for sure, but I’ll take that any day. We started 14th and finished 9th which is pretty good overall.”

“My car has got too much understeer, it was quite scary actually, it was probably one of the first times I’ve thought ‘this is kinda not fun’ (laughs). I has way too much understeer through all the fast stuff and then you get behind a car and you feel like the car won’t ever turn.

“At least we know what to improve in the car. I’m looking forward to going hard tomorrow.”

Lee Holdsworth, said: “I wasn’t happy with my qualifying, which put us on the back foot, but the race was much better today.”

“Credit to the team today, they did a fantastic pit stop, made a smart strategy call and then I had good car speed so we gained 11 positions from where I started.

“Tomorrow with a good performance in qualifying we have the race speed to run top 10 and press on from there.”

Team 18

Scott Pye, #20 Nulon Racing Team 18 Holden ZB Commodore

Practice 2: P8 (1:02.5122)
Qualifying: P6 (1:02.3298)
Race 27: 10th (Fastest Lap: 1:03.5566)

“We qualified sixth in the three-part qualifying which was quite tricky, so I was really happy with that.

“I had a good battle with Shane [Van Gisbergen] on the first lap but unfortunately he got me on to the straight and dropped me back to seventh which is where we stayed for the whole race except the last three laps.

“I made a mistake at the hairpin, out braked myself and dropped back three spots after the safety car restart.

“I was kicking myself, really annoyed that I made that mistake after such a long race.

“The crew did an amazing job, Krusty and everyone on this side of the garage really happy with and huge recovery by Frosty to finish up 11th which was an awesome result from where they started, so proud of everyone at Team 18.

“We’ll keep pushing hard, see if we can qualify well tomorrow and finish a few spots higher in the race.”

Mark Winterbottom, #18 IRWIN Racing Team 18 Holden ZB Commodore

Practice 2: P17 (1:02.7218)
Qualifying: P18 (1:02.3298)
Race 27: 10th (Fastest Lap: 1:03.6568)

“I didn’t get qualifying right today, the car was struggling a bit, but we drove through from 18th to 11th.

“We had pretty good pace in the race, but still looking for qualy speed. The race today proved it’s very hard to follow a car in front with aero wash, so where you qualify determines your position.

“Great to move forward but our focus is on qualifying and making sure we get further up the front. If we can, then we can race at the front.”

All photos supplied

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