The team at Wilson Security Racing again headed to the warmth but this time in Townsville for the weekends racing.  An expanding business in Townsville saw them expand their sponsorship for the weekend with added signage on Triple F Racing car #12 driven by Dean Fiore and Fair Dinkum Sheds car #21 driven by Karl Reindler.

________________________________________

Friday 9th July

V8 Supercars

The start to the weekend consisted of four separate practice sessions with the following results.

Practice 1  -  11th

Practice 2  -  2nd

Practice 3  -  5th

Practice 4  -  20th

The combined results placed Tim 20th overall and he was the fastest of the SBR cars.

________________________________________

Saturday 15th May

V8 Supercars

Tim Slade in #47 started the qualifying session with a full compliment of new tyres.  Starting on new front tyres and a set of used rear tyres Tim warmed the car  for the first lap before returning to the pits for a couple of green rear tyres. Unfortunately Tim crossed the yellow line at pit exit and would lose his fastest time for the session being a 1:13:71.  Tim's next best lap was a 1:13:88 placing him back in 17th for the start of the first race.

Shootout Results  -

1.   Whincup       
2.   Winterbottom
3.   Tander
4.   Bright
5.   Courtney 
6.   Johnson  
7.   Coulthard 
8.   Holdsworth
9.   Van Gisbergen
10. Lowndes

The first race of the weekend for the V8's and race 15 saw Tim drop a couple of places on the start dropping him back to 19th. Completing the first of two stops on lap 23 Tim returned to the field in 17th and eventually passed T. Kelly in car #7 before his second stop on lap 48.  Tim passed R. Kelly in car #15 and Coulthard in car #24 late in the race to finish 12th. A solid race performance and a result just outside the top ten saw Tim progress to 15th in the Championship standings.  The team also performed extremely well with the fastest pit stop for the race.

Race 15 Results: 

1.  Whincup    
2.  Tander    
3.  Winterbottom      
4.  Holdsworth
5.  Courtney       
6.  Ingall   
7.  J. Richards 
8.  Van Gisbergen   
9.  S. Richards      
10.Dumbrell

12th  Tim Slade

13th  A. Davison

Tim Slade - Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

"It was a very very tough race, just because you have so many right hand long corners so it's a lot of load on your body. I have pulled up pretty sore in my lower back and my foot is sore from braking."

"It was all on at the start, we moved up a couple of positions and then lost some, I'm not exactly sure where we were position wise at that point. Then I settled into a good rhythm and worked with Wes on making the car better during every pit stop."

"It's great that we have moved up to 15th in the points. As I've said to plenty of people it was great to finish so high up in Darwin but we can't lose sight of our goals and for this year it is to finish in the top 15 overall. Whenever we finish a race inside the top 15 I'm happy especially at this track, being  a street circuit and I don't have the best record on street circuits." 

________________________________________

Sunday 16th May

V8 Supercars

Tim entered Sundays qualifying with two sets of new tyres.  After warming up the car and bleeding new brakes at the start of the session it was time for new tyres and the hope of a good time. The track was considerably cooler than it had been previously in the weekend and that good time just never really came.  Having to settle for a 1:13:80, along with 27 other cars in the 13's, Tim would start race 16 from back in 25th with a big job ahead of him in the race.

Race 14 Qualifying Results:

1.  Whincup
2.  Lowndes
3.  Tander
4.  Courtney
5.  Bright
6.  Winterbottom
7.  W. Davison
8.  J. Richards
9.  Johnson
10.S.Richards

17th  Van Gisbergen

24th  A. Davison

25th  Tim Slade

Sunday's race saw Tim off to a great start moving up 3 places in the first lap but lap 2 saw the race interrupted by a safety car after an incident involving Ingall, R. Kelly and D'Alberto.  Tim was placed 7th on the track when he came in for his first stop on lap 21. Unfortunately stalling the car after the stop cost him valuable seconds and he returned to the field placed 19th.

Eventually passing Fiore and R. Kelly WSR car #47 again pitted on lap 45 and took advantage of a safety car immediately after to be running 13th.  Shortly after the restart Tim dropped back 4 places but would move back up through the field passing Holdsworth and then Bright and Coulthard who unfortunately for them had mechanical issues which saw them both drop out of the top ten in final laps.

Finishing 12th would see Tim cement his 15th place in the Championship standings leading into the mid season break.

Race 16 Results  -

1.  Winterbottom    
2.  Courtney     
3.  Tander 
4.  Dumbrell     
5.  S. Richards  
6.  W. Davison
7.  Van Gisbergen    
8.  J. Richards  
9.  Webb
10. Bargwana

12th  Tim Slade

15th  Alex Davison

Tim Slade - Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

"Starting from 25th it was always going to be difficult in the race. Obviously we didn't have the pace over a single lap in qualifying, of outright pace but I knew from yesterday that the car would still be decent for a race run."

"The car looks after its tyres, not the best out there but better than most but I don't really think we had the same pace as the top half dozen cars all weekend but if we had of started higher up in the race I think there was the potential to finish in a much better position."

"It was a crazy race I was struggling with brake balance right at the start and locked the front and almost took out Rick Kelly at turn 1 but managed to go off into the escape road, spin turn and get back only losing one position but lost probably five or six seconds."

"I then stalled it in the pit stop, so I didn't really make it easy for myself, it wasn't the best race on my behalf but the car was struggling a little bit."

"At the restart I don't know why but my tyres just seemed to take a couple of laps to come on. I just had really bad push those first couple of laps and thought I hope they actually do come up otherwise I am going to get swamped here. I got passed by three or four cars but managed to get them back which was lucky."

"All in all considering we didn't have the ultimate pace this weekend we have come away with two 12th places and we are now top 15 in the Championship so it's good to be in that position heading into the mid-season break. Jack [Perkins] and I will be working hard on driver changes and spending time at the workshop with the boys for the endurances races so I'm really looking forward to those."

________________________________________

Championship Standings  -

1.    Courtney           1947       
2.    Whincup            1827       
3.    Winterbottom    1623       
4.    Van Gisbergen   1598        
5.    Tander              1509
6.    Lowndes            1479       
7.    Holdsworth        1398       
8.    R. Kelly              1352       
9.    Caruso               1259      
10.   Johnson            1151

15th -    Slade      951

21st -    Davison   738

Teams Championship  -

1.    Team Vodafone     3306      
2.    Jim Beam Racing   3108        
3.    Fujitsu/GRM          2672       
4.    Toll/HRT                2454       
5.    FPR                      2433

15th  -  WSR  -  951

Also following the progress of the additional cars with Wilson Security sponsorship in Townsville -

Karl Reindler:

Saturday Qualifying  -  21^st
Race 15  -  21^st
Sunday Qualifying  -  23^rd
Race 16  -  DNF after damage from an incident on the 1st lap.
Championship Standing  -  28th on 402 points

Dean Fiore:

Saturday Qualifying  -  22^nd
Race 15  -  20^th
Sunday Qualifying  -  27^th
Race 16  -  22nd

Championship Standing  -  24th on 593 points.

V8 Utes:

Also competing on the weekend were the V8 Utes featuring Wilson Security Racing driver Charlie Kovacs (Handlebars) in car #69.

Qualifying 7th, Charlie was steaming through the field in race 1 when contact at turn 2 with car #58 in the dying stages of the race would see him suffer damage resulting in a DNF.

Starting back in 30th for race 2, Charlie drove as only Charlie can do gaining 21 places to finish up in 9th.  Holding his own in race 3 Charlie held track position and gained a further place to finish 8th.

Charlie's points haul for the weekend have him now placed 11th in the championship on 264 points.

Australian GT Championship:

Also competing this weekend was David Wall in the WSR backed Porsche in the Australian GT Championship being held at Phillip Island.  The weekend consisted of 2 endurance style 1 hour races.

Placing 3rd fastest in practice, David returned to the top of the tables quickly in qualifying taking pole position yet again.

"Qualifying went well.  The new tyre was all we thought and I ended up on pole by three tenths."

David lead race 1 for the first 9 laps when a spindle on the rear wheel broke making the car virtually undrivable.  Limping back to the pits, David would go down 4 laps and then have to again pit as his first stop was outside the pit window.  David put his head down and managed to salvage some positions to finish 16th.

Race 2 was always going to be a battle starting back in 16th but David had stormed through the field to 9th place by half race distance.  Although his run was interrupted by a safety car, David continued with his solid drive to finish 5th.

Netting a total of 85.5 points for the weekend sees David hold onto his Championship lead with nearest rival Hackett less that 20 points behind.

"I have to say a special thank you to my team this weekend, particularly Steve Williams. They didn't let the disappointment of the failure get to them, they worked very quickly to repair the car and get me back out on track and into the fight as quickly as possible," said David after race two.

"They gave me a car this weekend that I think we could have won with if not for the problem in race one."

"We will bounce back at Bathurst."

This weekend's results see David hold onto the CAMS Endurance Trophy which is awarded to the best driver in the two mini endurance rounds which Included Phillip Island this weekend and the previous round at Eastern Creek where David had 2 race wins.

The next round sees the V8 Supercars head to Phillip Island for the first of the endurance races on 10th - 12th September.

WSR Contacts:

Debbie McMellan
+61 419 324 658
debbie@wsrnet.com.au

Emily Tomkinson
+61 3 9224 0219
etomkinson@wilsonsecurity.com.au