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[FUJITSU] Assaillit's Townsville curse
ASSAILLIT'S TOWNSVILLE CURSE
12 July, 2009
Damian Assaillit's Fujitsu Series campaign started with great expectations at the new Townsville circuit, coming off the back of a win in the previous round a Winton. Qualifying in a strong third position, only two tenths off pole, Assaillit was looking good and quietly confident going into the first of three races for the third round of the Championship.
In Race 1 the Fujitsu car stalled on the grid with a clutch issue. The remainder of the cars safely passed by with Damian forced to claw his way back from 15th to finish in ninth. The reverse top ten format saw the Fujitsu Ford on pole for Race 2 and a race win was on the cards. This was not to be, once again Assaillit was plagued with clutch gremlins dropping him back to ninth position. Working hard to regain ground, Damian repeatedly found himself a victim of other competitors incidents. On lap eight while catching the lead group, a rear brake lockup spun the Fujitsu Ford into the unforgiving concrete barrier causing extensive damage to the once pristine Ford.
An army of workers spent the next four hours repairing and rebuilding the Fujitsu Falcon, successfully putting it back on the grid for Race 3. A dejected Assaillit now could only go forward. After an excellent start, Damian drove with tremendous skill and determination to take the Fujitsu Ford thru the field to sixth at one point after starting rear of grid.
The Townsville curse however still would not leave him, and as he rounded turn two, he found Brad Lowe stranded, blocking the track and with nowhere to go collected Lowe’s car damaging the front wheel of the Fujitsu Ford necessitating a pit stop. Rejoining the race his woes were to continue with officials requesting a further pitstop to remove a loose window. Assaillit bravely soldiered on to finish 10th.
Assaillit said later “This was a horror weekend, the worst to date. Knowing that we had the pace to be potentially on the podium, it was very disappointing. I’d really like to thank everybody who worked so hard to repair the car, they all deserve a medal. Had the clutch cylinder problem been resolved earlier, the results of the weekend would have certainly been a lot different given the car speed we had here, I’m sure! I just want to put it all behind me now and look forward to the next event”.
Round 4 of the Fujitsu series will be held at Sandown, Victoria 31st July.
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