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NOV
07
INTERVIEWS WITH INGALL AND VAN GISBERGEN
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The V8 Daily Dump's Michael Banks was able to catch up with SuperCheap Auto Racing's Russell Ingall and Stone Brothers Racing's Shane van Gisbergen at Phillip Island after Saturday's race. V8DD: Russell Ingall has joined us here at the V8 Daily Dump, how did you find race 1 at Phillip Island? RI: A bit boring basically. It's a bit of a funny meeting, it's very low key. A few of the hardcore punters are here, but that's about it. So it's like being back at a Formula Ford club meeting to be quite honest. It's a bit hard to get enthused about the whole thing. Race wise, it was okay. Everyone is struggling around at the moment with tyre grip. I think we've got the few that are out front that have got it sussed. The rest of us, I think everyone has complained about the same thing, just lack of grip. It's like you're driving around in the wet basically. The track conditions have really changed here since the endurance race for some reason. I'm afraid the old Dunlop tyre, we need to be looking at that later down the road because it's a bit of a joke driving around like we are. It's not real racing at the moment. Everyone's just trying to keep the car on the road, let alone race each other. V8DD: Would you support a move to make the soft tyre the compulsory tyre? RI: I think we just need a better tyre. The fact of the matter is the cars have outgrown the tyre. The tyre is pretty average. We need to either go to a bigger diameter tyre, or something with more reasonable grip. At the moment, these things are basically hopeless. Their too inconsistent from circuit-to-circuit, definitely need to do something about it. That's what's going to make the racing more exciting, rather than soft tyres and all the rest of it. It's just having a decent tyre to race on. V8DD: Would a change in tyre be more beneficial than the way they (VESA) allow aerodynamics? RI: No. It's all to do with that black round thing at the end of the day. We went to a different construction tyre halfway through this year. Ever since then, it's been varying circuit to circuit, how you bed the tyre in, there have been a lot of inconsistencies with it. It's a shame it had to happen because the one they had at the beginning of the year was a better tyre. They need to be looking at that before any artificial ways of making the racing exciting. V8DD: Moving to 2010, you've announced you'll stay with the team, along with SuperCheap. You'll have a 888 built Commodore though, will that be ready for the fly away races? RI: It's about halfway built as we speak the first shell. Because we got the first part of it completed by 888 sent to us, we're actually going to finish the shell ourselves because we were running in conjunction with 888 the build. So their fabricators were building their shell, our fabricators were building ours. We wait for the gear to come from them to bolt it on the car. But it's a good halfway down the road, if not nearly three quarters. We'll have that done and painted before Christmas. So as soon as the guys get back from holidays, they'll bolt it together, which roughly 2 weeks. So we'll be well ready before the first one. Then the second car, we're trying to get the second car done before the first round in Bahrain, but it's going to be a stretch. If we can we'll have the second car ready for that one. V8DD: For your teammate in 2010, they may or may not have a brand new car. Who would you prefer, Slade or Murphy? RI: Who's to say it's either? V8DD: If it was to be one of those? Do you have a preference on a mature driver or keeping with someone young like Tim? RI: Well, Tim's coming on pretty good. He's been pretty fast, it would be a shame to lose him after investing quite a bit of money getting him this far. But on the other hand, there's no doubt about it that other teams benefit from having 2 fast drivers, because you can bounce ideas off each other, bounce set-ups during practice. Because we are so limited with our practice sessions both away from meetings and at meetings, it's a big plus to have a number 1 driver alongside you as well. There are for's and against both, we'll just have to wait and see what plays out. We might run three cars yet, who knows! V8DD: You talked about a lack of track time there, for a weekend like this there is very little happening, only a half hour practice session, was that enough? Or could this weekend have been used better? RI: I'm actually for a 2 day meeting anyway. I think the category is talking about doing all this fly-shit stuff and saving us money, that's all it is basically. The biggest expense is when we go away, it's meetings. Accommodation expenses and travel and everything... If we reduce it down to 2 day meetings it'll be a whole lot better. And in lieu of that, if they up our test days, that will be far more beneficial. You can get out and do more testing at your home track, 4 days just isn't enough throughout the year. It wouldn't cost that much more, at least on a test day you can run... put old engines in, that sort of thing. When you come testing at a 3 day away meeting, around of the championship, you still have to run good engines and your good gearboxes. The cost reduction could be huge. I'm sort of all for that, especially when it comes to the endurance races. When you've got more test days up your hand, you can give those guys a few laps, rather than 'there's half a dozen' during the meeting and there you go. V8DD: One final question, you talked about enduros there. Would you support the change in the rules to force the driver to stay in his car come the enduros, no fulltime combinations. RI: Depends who my teammate is. V8DD: Thankyou Russell. RI: No worries. Shane van Gisbergen V8 Daily Dump: Shane van Gisbergen has joined us at the V8 Daily Dump at Phillip Island. Just had race one, 5th position finish, how did you find it? Shane Van Gisbergen: Yeah, it was pretty good. We struggled at the start with balance, we started 8th and dropped back to about 12th or 13th. We had good pace and past a few cars in the pits and on the track and a couple of guys fell off and we got up to 5th. Pretty good, pretty happy. V8DD: Been doing this for a couple of years now, you're a familiar face in the paddock, how are you finding the V8's? SVG: This is my 4th time here (Phillip Island) now, but it's all going pretty quickly. I'm enjoying it, we getting stronger and stronger, the cars are getting better and better and I'm getting better. We're working well together. We were 4th in qualifying, in the shootout I just couldn't put it together. We've got good speed, top 5. It's a good place to be. V8DD: Since Queensland Raceway all the Stone Brothers cars have been flying it seems, what did you find? What secrets did you unlock? SVG: Nothing really. We've just been working and working away. Brighty's really strong, he unfortunately had a bad race, what can you do? But we're just working at it and doing what we do. V8DD: Just hard work. SVG: Exactly. V8DD: Looking forward to 2010, no changes here I take it. SVG: We're running the same sponsor, same car, for the start of the year at least. The stability is good. Just keep moving forward hopefully, have a strong finish to the year and hit the ground running next year. V8DD: As a factory Ford driver almost, do you feel any additional pressure? SVG: Not really. It's all part of it I suppose. It's pretty cool to be a Ford driver and where I am now, I'm loving it. I've got to do a good job I know and that's what I'm trying to do. V8DD: With Lowndes and Whincup moving to Holdens, have you found more fans coming towards you? SVG: You know were probably pissed off, that's probably not the right word, but they are moving to Holden. That's their loss I suppose. Stone Brothers has huge support anyway, us and FPR it's only good for us. V8DD: Thanks for spending a moment with the V8 Daily Dump. SVG: Cheers. |
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Current opinion poll
Championship Series Driver Points
| 1 | James Courtney | Ford | 1947 |
| 2 | Jamie Whincup | Holden | 1827 |
| 3 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford | 1623 |
| 4 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford | 1598 |
| 5 | Garth Tander | Holden | 1509 |
Fujitsu Series Driver Points
| 1 | Steve Owen | Holden | 1076 |
| 2 | Tim Blanchard | Ford | 872 |
| 3 | Nick Percat | Holden | 853 |
| 4 | David Russell | Ford | 763 |
| 5 | James Moffat | Ford | 692 |
Teams Championship
| 1 | TeamVodafone | 3306 |
| 2 | Jim Beam Racing | 3108 |
| 3 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | 2682 |
| 4 | Toll Holden Racing Team | 2454 |
| 5 | Ford Performance Racing | 2433 |
Manufacturers Championship
10
06
