Close results fire up field
CHAMPIONSHIP l eader Jamie Whincup knows, wet or dry, a battle for Supercars supremacy looms in New Zealand today.
The Holden ace found himself wedged between Ford pair Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom at the top of the timesheets following yesterday’s practice for the Auckland SuperSprint event at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
Sandown 500 winner Cam Waters was the fastest of the day, clocking a 1 min and 02.5623 sec lap.
Whincup was next with a 1:02.7037 but championship rivals Scott McLaughlin, Chaz Mostert and Shane Van Gisbergen were all close behind the Red Bull Holden Racing Team star.
Winterbottom (1:02.7097) came third on the timesheets but McLaughlin, Mostert and Van Gisbergen rounded out the top six.
A mere 189 points separate the five title chasers heading into this weekend’s penultimate event, leaving little margin for error.
Rain is forecast for today’s action and, after several drivers struggled to come to terms with the resurfaced Pukekohe track yesterday, Whincup is expecting another tight tussle.
“Those new sections are going to be pretty hectic in the wet, I’m predicting they’ll be really slippery to be honest,” Whincup said.
“Because it’s so close, you’ve got to go hard. If you conserve you’ll end up coming third or fourth so head down and go as quick as you can.”
New Zealander McLaughlin, who was quickest in open- ing practice yesterday, was optimistic he’d find some extra pace before today’s qualifying run.
“The car’s OK, it needs to be a little bit better,” he said. “I feel we’ve got a really strong race car, we just need to tune it up … to qualify a bit further up.”
McLaughlin’s teammate Fabian Coulthard has more issues to overcome, a late lap lifting him from near the bottom to a mid-pack 14th.
Coulthard, who lies just 17 points off championship leader Whincup, knows he needs to improve to avoid being overrun in the title race.
“The car needs to be better, it needs to be faster,” Coulthard said.
Today’s action begins with a 20-minute qualifying run from (10.25 AEDT) before the 70-lap race starts at 2.10pm.