 Older Article | Newer Article |
[6-HOUR] Hour 6 Update
by Stefan Bartholomaeus
Hour 6 Update
- Stuart Kostera and Warren Luff have cruised to victory in the inaugural Dial Before You Dig Eastern Creek Six Hour. With a three lap lead, Kostera backed off his pace by up to ten seconds per lap in the final 15 minutes.
- Inky Tulloch and Steve Jones made it a Team Mitsubishi Ralliart 1-2, erasing the demons of an ill-fated run at last February’s Bathurst 12 Hour. The team’s third car, driven by Glyn Crimp and Mathew Cherry was the fastest car on the track for much of the last hour, and took fourth behind the Peter Conroy/Mark Brame Hankook Lancer.
- The battle for fourth had been tense during the last hour, with the Johnson Window Films Subaru losing the position thanks to a final fuel stop on lap 181. Bullas and co-driver Barton Mawer would eventually finish sixth, one place behind the GWS BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnell and John Bowe, who took out Class B.
- Despite four punctures – which appeared to be occurring at exactly 75 minute intervals – the Chris Delfsma/Dean Neville FPV GT ended the day second in Class B and first Australian built car home in a disappointing 17th outright. The Century 21 car ended the day six laps ahead of the Donut King HSV, which stopped at the exit of pit-lane with just 25 minutes of the race remaining, before eventually finishing 19th.
- The Class C battle was the highlight of the final hour, with the Jake Camilleri/Scott Nicholas Mazda MPS closing in on the class leading Allan Sheppard/Garth Duffy BMW 130i. The result was decided inside the final 20 minutes of the race, when the BMW pitted for a final fuel stop – a situation Camilleri was unaware of during the battle.
- Class D also provided late drama, despite Garry Holt and Ryan McLeod taking a dominant seven lap victory, having finished eighth outright. The battle for second place was the focal point, with the Safe-T-Stop Clio running out of fuel inside the final 10 minutes. While the car made it back to the pit-lane and was refuelled, it proved extremely difficult to refire, and provided the unusual sight of the Renault crew attempting to push start the car from within its pit-box. Sadly it was the last retirement, and handed second in class to the Disc Brakes Australia Honda Integra team – who recovered impressively from their windscreen smashing issue in the morning warm-up.
- By finishing 18th outright, the Bezcorp Security Toyota Yaris was able to take out Class E.
| Older Article | Newer Article |
| Browse 'NATIONAL' | |
| Browse 'NATIONAL' Archive | |
