[V8SC] Tough street brawl at Gold Coast



One of the Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing's [FDSR] advantages heading into the notorious Armor All 600 on the Gold Coast was the fact that they were using a known driver combination, with team-leader Karl Reindler again paired with Italian Touring Car star Fabrizio Giovanardi.

pic: chris bronicki

Tough street brawl on the Gold Coast..
REVIEW: Karl Reindler Racing, Armor All Gold Coast 600
V8 Supercars Rnd#21/22 (October 21-23)
25 October, 2011

One of the Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing's [FDSR] advantages heading into the notorious Armor All 600 on the Gold Coast was the fact that they were using a known driver combination, with team-leader Karl Reindler again paired with Italian Touring Car star Fabrizio Giovanardi.

"It's nice to have some consistency from one year to the next. I got on really well with him last year, and he drove the car exceptionally well," Karl admitted pre-event, and whilst again they hit-it-off like old school buddies, unfortunately for them their on-track results didn't reflect how competitive they had been at the event in 2010.

One of Karl's main concerns heading into the tough road course was the sequence of chicane's on the high speed back straight, the West Australian worried about the car's ability to ride the kerbs within the new restrictions, and change direction quickly. Sadly his fears were met in almost every practice session, both Karl and Fabrizio ill at ease with the car during the opening day. They weren't alone either, all three Brad Jones Racing entries struggling with setup forcing a late night in the pits as the crew worked to improve each car ahead of qualifying.

Saturday saw some improvement for the FDSR car in qualifying, Karl topping the three BJR cars with the 21st fastest time, out-qualifying a number of established stars in the process as the weather deteriorated throughout the session.

Fabrizio was slated to start the opening race, and the Italian showed strong pace to move forward five places within a handful of laps before reporting a missfire in the engine. By lap 13 FDSR engineer Chris Stuckey called him into the pits where they discovered a broken crank pulley bolt, retiring the car on the spot.

After such a strong early run, and with the confidence the team gained from finishing inside the top ten in 2010, Karl used his bank of green tyres to turn in some quick laps in Q2, but soon discovered that his frustrating weekend was about to escalate, V8 Supercars disallowing his two fastest laps after penalties were applied for tripping the sensors on the back straight chicane.

Sadly a return to the pits for a second 'green' set saw no improvement as again his quickest time was disallowed, Karl admitting post session that the car was incredibly difficult to drive through that critical sector of the lap because of how much it was pitching off the kerbs, he also admitted that the car had developed serious understeer, much worse than it had been on Saturday. In the end, P28, not far in arrears from team-mates Bright and Bargwanna..

Fabrizio again started the race and within 15 laps was up to P20 and continuing to move forward. Sadly, that's about as far forward as the FDSR Commodore would go after he was given not one, but two drive through penalties for cutting the chicane (each car was allowed six incursions before being given a drive-through).. To say he was unhappy on returning to the pits to change over to Reindler on lap 47 would have been an understatement - it was a good thing few people close by spoke Italian..

From there any chance Karl had of mounting an attack on the top ten was over, with the car dropping time in the pits and ultimately laps to the leaders.

Frustratingly too for those teams penalised for kerb hopping was the fact that mid-race, V8 Supercars elected not to continue using the system, and turned it off because of a perceived lack of accuracy..

In the end, Karl held on to be placed 22nd, but four laps down on the race winners, the other two BJR cars also struggling to record any meaningful result.    "It was frustrating to have two drive-through penalties before I even had access to the car," Karl admitted afterwards. "We were two-and-a-half laps down when I took over, both the mirrors were busted and the car was undriveable.

"It had a busted shock or anti-roll bar and was all over the place so we didn't bother putting any decent tyres on it. It was difficult just holding onto the car until the end of the race.

"The only good thing is that we've got a [Fair Dinkum] shed-load of tyres now for the rest of the year. I think we've got three sets of greens so that will help at the next round in Tassie."

"I am very frustrated by the chicane," Fabrizio admitted, echoing Karl's frustration. "All I hear is 'chicane, chicane, chicane! I went around as wide as I could; wider than anyone else but where I was going wide around at the first part I was hitting the second. It was the second part of the chicane that was the problem but I didn't have that explained.

"Then something was wrong with the car so I had to go slower and slower. I was not as fast as I was yesterday. I did not have some pace but I suppose not all days can be good."

For the Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing team it's back to sprint round formats for the final three events of the season, with a three week break to prepare for the sole Tasmanian round of the championship; Symmons Plains for the Falken Tasmanian Challenge (November 11-13)

2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series - Race 21
Armor All 600, Gold Coast, QLD (October 22, 2011)
1. Jamie Whincup/Sebastien Bourdais (Holden) - 102 laps
2. Will Davison/Mika Salo (Ford)
3. Mark Winterbottom/Richard Lyons (Ford)
4. James Moffat/Joey Hand (Ford)
5. Fabian Coulthard/Patrick Long (Holden)
6. Greg Murphy/Oliver Gavin (Holden)
7. Rick Kelly/Jorg Bergmeister (Holden)
8. Michael Caruso/Augusto Farfus Jnr (Holden)
9. Jonathon Webb/Gil De Ferran (Ford)
10. Lee Holdsworth/Simon Pagenaud (Holden)

DNF. Karl Reindler/Fabrizio Giovanardi (Fair Dinkum Sheds Holden) - 13 laps
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2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series - Race 22
Armor All 600, Gold Coast, QLD (October 23, 2011)
1. Mark Winterbottom/Richard Lyons (Ford) - 102 laps
2. Jamie Whincup/Sebastien Bourdais (Holden)
3. Lee Holdsworth/Simon Pagenaud (Holden)
4. Greg Murphy/Oliver Gavin (Holden)
5. Rick Kelly/Jorg Bergmeister (Holden)
6. James Courtney/Darren Turner (Holden)
7. Steve Owen/Boris Said (Holden)
8. Russell Ingall/Jan Magnussen (Holden)
9. Todd Kelly/Richard Westbrook (Holden)
10. Tim Slade/Helio Castroneves (Ford)

22. Karl Reindler/Fabrizio Giovanardi (Fair Dinkum Sheds Holden) - 98 laps
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2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series (points after race 22)
1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) - 2517 points
2. Craig Lowndes (Holden) - 2374
3. Shane Van Gisbergen (Ford) - 2009
4. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) - 1966
5. Garth Tander (Holden) - 1956
6. Will Davison (Ford) - 1847
7. Rick Kelly (Holden) - 1845
8. Lee Holdsworth (Holden) - 1590
9. Alex Davison (Ford) - 1535
10. Jason Bright (Holden) - 1519

26. Karl Reindler (Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Holden) - 868
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2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series Calendar  
Rnd#1 - Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (February 12) - KRR DNF
Rnd#2 - Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (February 13) - KRR 11th
Rnd#3 - Clipsal 500, Adelaide (March 19) - KRR 19th
Rnd#4 - Clipsal 500, Adelaide (March 20) - KRR 17th
Non-champ. - Australian F1 Grand Prix (March 24-27) - 18th / 19th / 15th
Rnd#5 - ITM 400, Hamilton, NZ (April 16) - KRR 17th
Rnd#6 - ITM 400, Hamilton, NZ (April 17) - KRR 13th
Rnd#7 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (April 30) - KRR 7th
Rnd#8 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (May 1) - KRR DNF
Rnd#9 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (May 1) - KRR DNS
Rnd#10 - Winton Motor Raceway, VIC (May 21) - KRR 20th
Rnd#11 - Winton Motor Raceway, VIC (May 22) - KRR 23rd
Rnd#12 - Skycity Triple Crown, Darwin (June 18) - KRR DNF
Rnd#13 - Skycity Triple Crown, Darwin (June 19) - KRR 25th
Rnd#14 - Sucrogen Townsville 400 (July 9) - KRR 22nd
Rnd#15 - Sucrogen Townsville 400 (July 10) - KRR 24th
Rnd#16 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 20) - KRR 9th
Rnd#17 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 20) - KRR 16th
Rnd#18 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 21) - KRR 16th
Rnd#19 - L&H 500, Phillip Island, VIC (September 18) - KRR 28th
Rnd#20 - Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, NSW (October 9) - KRR 14th
Rnd#21 - Armor All Gold Coast 600 (October 22) - KRR DNF
Rnd#22 - Armor All Gold Coast 600 (October 23) - KRR 22nd
Rnd#23 - Falken Tasmania Challenge (November 12)
Rnd#24 - Falken Tasmania Challenge (November 13)
Rnd#25 - Norton 360 Sandown Challenge (November 19)
Rnd#26 - Norton 360 Sandown Challenge (November 20)
Rnd#27 - Sydney Telstra 500 (December 3)
Rnd#28 - Sydney Telstra 500 (December 4)  
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Karl Reindler is proudly supported by Brad Jones Racing, Fair Dinkum Sheds, Yale, Wilson Security, Thompson Aviation, Westrac, EMT, JSW Drilling, National Tyres, Herbalife, Fitness First, Focus Bikes, Zise and Sponsorxchange.com

www.karlreindler.com




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