[V8SC] Holdsworth returns fire!

by Lee Holdsworth

(Archived)


pic: Chris Von Wieldt

Holdsworth hits back..
Heading into Symmons Plains for the penultimate round of the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship series, Lee Holdsworth's frame of mind matched that of 28 of his peers - victory..

"Outside of Whincup [Jamie], Winterbottom [Mark] and Tander [Garth], all the rest of us can hope for is a round victory. We [Garry Rogers Motorsport] went into the Tasmanian event with a clear objective - to gain some valuable points and a podium.. Practice went pretty well, although there were 27 cars within a second, so qualifying was going to be tough - early in the weekend we had a brake issue, which the team fixed prior to qualifying, and it was immediately better...

"It was great that I actually held onto pole until the dying stages of the session, which was positive, and even made a second row start, so we were pretty happy heading into race one.

"The first race was action packed, and I held third by the end of the opening lap after passing Winterbottom. The straight line speed of the Falcon is pretty good, so I knew I'd be under fire on the fast back straight so tried to protect my line, but got shuffled back two spots. Heading into turn one I could see Steven Richards in my rear mirror and waited for the attack. We were all grouped up heading into the turn, so there was limited room to move, and I could hear him go in deep, so I tried to give him as much room as I could.

"It wasn't enough.. He hit me in the left rear and tapped me into a spin, fortunately I had cars around me that kept me straight, sadly Rick Kelly was one of those, but by that stage, I didn't have any other option.. I managed to keep going, despite losing several places and a shot at the top three, but recovered for tenth which wasn't bad.

"Post race I didn't think too much about the incident, and obviously nor did the officials, but then I discovered both Richards and Tim Edwards having a spray in their official release about me trying to win the championship in the first corner.. Now normally I ignore that stuff, but it's starting to wear a bit thin, so I thought if they had a chance to make a throw-away comment, then I had every right to respond..

"I honestly believe that Steve knows he was in the wrong, but I think too he's under pressure from Mark's dominant team performance, and he, like me, was on a pretty good run at the front of the field for a change and potentially a good points haul.. As for Tim, I think it was a tactic to take the focus off the fact that Whincup is running away with the championship, and there's nothing that they [FPR] can do about it. It surprises me really, because there is no question that FPR are a professional outfit, in fact, one of THE professional outfits of the category, so to hear a ridiculous outburst from someone in FPR of that calibre is just out of character. We all get hot under the collar, but hey, we're competing and things like that happen and in my case, I was the innocent party..

"As for running into Frosty at the hairpin on the opening lap, it was pretty clear from the monitor [TV] that like Mark, I had someone in my back bumper pushing me too, so there wasn't a lot I could do about it, I was the meat in the sandwich. It's funny, they make quick judgement calls when other drivers are concerned, but I can recall an FPR car under some serious pressure at Bahrain making a questionable move on Tander.. What was Tim's view on that!

"Anyway, so far as I'm concerned, I'm just going to continue doing what I've been doing and look for another race win, and another round win. If I get pushed around by an FPR car, or for that matter any other car, I'll do what I can to maintain or gain position, that's what racing's about, and if the other car comes off second best, well that's not my problem.. We are, after all, racers!

"Despite the setback we still had good pace in races two and three and finished both races inside the top ten. I had a great fight with Tander in race two and was able to keep him behind me, much to the satisfaction of the team and finished seventh, and in race three I finished ninth for seventh overall, a pretty good result all up.

"It's satisfying too that we've sorted the car prior to Oran Park, which is an event I really enjoy, and have done pretty well at.. It would be great to win the final ever event there, and after our performance in Tassie, I reckon we've got a very good chance!!"

Game on...

Click here to read Lee's previous column 





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