The team at WSR again headed north to the warmer weather in Townsville for the next round of the V8 Championship which included the Dunlop Series and the Porsche City Index Carrera Cup Series as support categories.

Wednesday 4th July

The activities were kicked off with the team visiting Lavarack Barracks, as they have done since the very first Townsville race 4 years ago. Initially touring 4th REGT RAA the team were shown the intricacies of their weapons and toured their museum before putting their talents to the test in the simulated rifle range. Finishing the afternoon signing autographs and with some social chit chat the team were extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience some of life in the army and to share war stories shall we say. Our thanks to SGT Darren Thomas who organized the day but was unfortunately away on a course and unable to attend.

Friday 6th July

The day was jam packed with practice sessions across all categories competing on the weekend.

V8 Supercars

There were four practice sessions in total for the day for the V8's. The initial 2 sessions were dedicated to the bottom 50 percent of the field and endurance co drivers whilst sessions 3 and 4 were for the full field of regular drivers.

David Wall in WSR car #21 finished P1 14th (1:15:41), P2 15th (1:15:31) P3 22nd (1:14:72) and P4 25th (1:14:27).

Dunlop Series

There were two practice sessions for the day for the Dunlop Series. Dale Wood, driving the GB Galvanising/Wilson Technology car #45 finished P1 in 12th and P2 in 15th, placing him 15th overall.

Carrera Cup

Also with two practice sessions for the day, Daniel Gaunt in the Skye Sands/Wilson Security car #27 finished P1 in 4th and P2 in 5th.

Saturday 7th July

It was down to business for all categories with qualifying and racing starting in earnest for the weekend.

V8 Supercars

Qualifying was in much cooler conditions on an extremely overcast day. David, still learning the track, pulled out his best time for the session on the final lap (1:13:65) but was only good enough for 27th. Coulthard 13th, Bright 22nd and Reindler 24th. Top ten will be decided by the shoot out.

Top Ten Shootout Results.

1. Winterbottom.
2. Reynolds.
3. Whincup.
4. Lowndes.
5. D'Alberto
6. Owen.
7. Davison.         
8. Moffat.
9. Johnson.
10. Tander

Race 14

Starting from 27th on the last row of the grid the team elected to start on hards and as luck would have it a safety car on the first lap provided the perfect opportunity to pit and change to soft tyres.

Rejoining in 24th David completed 22 laps on the tyres and was top of the tables on the timing screens when he pitted for his second stop on lap 24. A second safety car on lap 33 saw a number of teams pit. David pitted for a fuel top up and was well placed in 22nd with only a short stop still to come.

An oil covered windscreen and extremely poor radio reception made the job harder but David pushed on.         

Pitting on lap 63 for his final stop, David rejoined in 20th for the run home and held this position till race end. Coulthard had an excellent result finishing 4th but unfortunately Bright suffered a DNF whilst Reindler finished back in 25th.

Race 14 Results:

1. Whincup.
2. Winterbottom.
3. Tander.
4. Coulthard.
5. Lowndes
6. Reynolds.
7. Owen.
8. R. Kelly.          
9. Holdsworth
10. Courtney

Dunlop Series

Results weren't quite as hoped but Dale Wood put the GB Galvanising/Wilson Security car just outside the top ten in 11th place.

Qualifying Results:

1. Mostert.        
2. McLaughlin.  
3. Russell.           
4. Percat.            
5. Youlden

Race 1

Unusually cool windy conditions set the scene for the first race of the weekend. Starting from 11th, Dale found himself pushed back a few places early in the race he fought back to finish 13th.

Race 1 Results:

1. McLaughlin.
2. Percat.
3. Mostert.
4. Pye.
5. Walsh

Carrera Cup

Daniel Gaunt in the Skye Sands/Wilson Security Porsche had hoped to be on the front row but will start from the second row after qualifying in 4th.

Qualifying Results:

1. Davison.         
2. Reid.
3. Baird.               
4. Gaunt.            
5. Richards

Race 1

A reasonably uneventful race for Carrera Cup saw the top five contenders start and finish in exactly the same positions.

Race 1 Results:

1. Davison.         
2. Reid.
3. Baird.               
4. Gaunt.            
5. Richards

Sunday 8th July

V8 Supercars

The sun finally broke through for qualifying and with a good tyre bank David was keen to improve on yesterday's position. Unfortunately not to be and had to settle for 27th again. Bright 12th and Reindler 25th

Qualifying Results:

1. Reynolds.
2. Winterbottom.
3. Davison.
4. Owen.
5. Lowndes
6. Courtney.
7. Webb.
8. Coulthard.
9. Whincup.       
10. Patrizi

Race 15

Starting from 27th David managed to work his way up to 24th by the end of the first lap. A mechanical black flag for Ingall in car #66 a couple of laps later put him up to 23rd but he was soon passed by Premat and was back to 24th.

Pitting for the first of two scheduled stops on lap 18, David was serviced with fuel and soft tyres and rejoined the field in 24th. Climbing as high as 18th, Wall made an unscheduled stop late in the race, under a safety car, for some fresh rubber. Although the move dropped him back to 23rd it ultimately paid off with some extra race pace allowing Wall to progress through the field to finish inside the twenty in 19th.

Race 15 Results:

1. Whincup.
2. Lowndes.
3. Davison.
4. Tander.
5. Winterbottom
6. Reynolds.
7. Van Gisbergen.
8. Webb.
9. Patrizi.             
10. Bright

Championship Standings

1.            Whincup. 1794

2.            Winterbottom. 1694

3.            Davison. 1654

4.            Lowndes. 1496

5.            Van Gisbergen. 1280

6.            Tander. 1239

7.            Holdsworth. 1190

8.            Slade. 1170

9.            Coulthard. 1030

10.          Reynolds. 951

Bright. 12th. 882

Reindler. 24th. 479

Wall. 25th. 454 

Dunlop Series

Race 2

Race 2 was a reverse start grid for the top ten which had Wood still starting from 13th.

After having worked his way into the top ten he was issued a drive through penalty for a driving infringement and finished a disappointing 17th.

Race 2 Results:

1. McLaughlin.
2. Miedecke.
3. Percat.
4. Jones.
5. Walsh

Race 3

Dale wood 8th

Race 3 Results

1. Percat.
2. McLaughlin.
3. Mostert.
4. Blanchard.
5. Miedecke

Championship Standings

1.            McLaughlin. 828

2.            Mostert. 768

3.            Percat. 681

4.            Pye. 624

5.            Youlden. 613

Wood. 17th. 321

Carrera Cup

Race 2

Starting from 4th, Daniel made a good start but was swamped by a number of competitors later in the first lap and dropped back through the field to just inside the ten. Daniel fought hard for the remainder of the race to finish 7th.

Race 2 Results:

1. Reid.
2. Baird.
3. Davison.         
4. Foster.            
5. Richards

Race 3

Daniel started the final race from P7. Although there was some minor touching during the 14 lap race it was virtually incident free till lap 11 where a coming together of Foster and Heimgartner brought out the safety car. Boosting Gaunt up a couple of places, he finished 5th.

Race 3 Results:

1. Reid.
2. Davison.         
3. Baird.               
4. Richards.        
5. Gaunt

Gaunt finished the round in 5th netting 107 points for the weekend.

The team at WSR along with John Bowe Racing hosted a young cancer sufferer over the weekend. Amanda and her friend Adam were treated to a weekend at the V8's, experiencing all there is to see and do at the track. The team were extremely honoured to meet someone with such fight and spirit, you are an inspiration to us all Amanda, and would like to wish Amanda all the best with her battles ahead.