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Australian GT news

The next round of the Australian GT will be at Phillip Island on 4th September, where at least four drivers are in the running to win the Tourist Trophy, which is awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points in Eastern Creek and Phillip Island rounds.

 

In contention is Klark Quinn in the VIP Petfoods Mosler, Mark Eddy and Greg Crick, and Dean Grant who is looking forward to stretching the legs of his Vodka O sponsored Mosler, rebuilt after his frightening crash in the All Armor 12hr race in the early part of this year.

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AUSTRALIAN GT: Technical problems for the VIP Petfoods Mosler, but Quinn still leads the Australian GT score sheets.
Klark Quinn in the VIP Petfoods Mosler battles transmission problems to take a first and third at the fourth round of the Australian GT at Townsville.

Australian GT moved into unknown territory for the 4th round of the series, visiting the Reid Park Circuit at Townsonville. A narrow, twisty street circuit, Klark Quinn was relishing the challenge of being there, and proved his confidence to be justified by taking pole for the start of Race 1, and as a prize for his efforts in qualifying won an extra set of Michelin slicks for his team.


The format for the AGT races had been revised to two half hour sprints this weekend, and as race 1 began Klark Quinn judged his rolling start to perfection, and was soon romping away into the distance. However, five laps in saw a recurrence of problems with the transmission that had been in evidence during qualifying.



"We think the hot weather here is making the air compressor that operates the gear shift cut out" said Quinn after. He switched to sequential shift during the race, but soon found it affecting his lap times. "It has different mapping, and the car was jumping into corners." Consequently his seven second lead over the Mercedes SLS of Peter Hackett was cut to a mere 1.4 by the end of the race. "That was closer than I would have liked! By the end of the race I really had to hang on!" said Quinn, relieved and delighted in equal measures.


Race two saw Quinn and the VIP Petfoods' team no nearer resolving the transmission issues which continued to hamper them as during the previous race. Also following the race win of the previous day, Quinn collect the 50kg success penalty ballast, which has been brought into to replace the benchmark qualifying lap time, that drivers had objected to at Eastern Creek.


As the transmission problems for the Mosler intensified, the Lamborghini Gallardo of Kevin Weeks breezed by at lap five, and Peter Hackett shot through in the Mercedes on lap 15, leaving Quinn Jnr to take a third place overall in the second race.


After the race Quinn remarked, "It was going into neutral on the downshift to second. I was missing lots of apexes just trying to find a gear. It was the toughest race I have ever driven.

The next round is at Phillip Island (Victoria) at the beginning of September, and Klark Quinn will go into that round as Championship Leader.