Glenfords Racing successfully reached its self-imposed target of being top 12 in the series following an up-and-down weekend at Winton Raceway (VIC) for round eight of the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship.
Starting the weekend off on a high, Kiwi Fabian Coulthard posted the third fastest time with a 1:24.0933m lap in Friday's practice session, putting the spotlight on the Glenfords team for its first-ever media conference since joining the V8 main game. Held up in qualifying, the team was forced to line up 16th for the start of race one.
Making a slow start to the opening race, Coulthard was stuck well down in the mid-pack when he suffered dramas with his rear anti-roll bar and which reduced the #111 Falcon's drive and limited the Kiwi's ability to make any passing manouevres, ending with a net loss of just three places for race one.
A stronger start to the second race, Coulthard had a narrow escape as he successfully cleared a turn-two pile up, but an contact from Tony D'Alberto left Coulthard with damage to his suspension and steering which hampered any further progress for the race and the Glenfords Falcon crossed the finish line in 16th place.
Delivering an outstanding performance in race three, Coulthard fought his way back inside the top ten to finish in ninth.
Claiming 15th overall was good enough for the single-car team to reach it target of entering the upcoming enduro rounds inside the top 12, giving Glenfords Racing a solid platform to advance from through the remaining rounds.
Pairing Coulthard with fellow New Zealander John McIntyre for the first of the series' two endurance events, Glenfords Racing will take to Victoria's Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on 12-14 September for round nine of the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship.
DRIVER #111 – Fabian Coulthard
"To run top three in Friday's practice was obviously a great start to the weekend. I got held up in qualifying a bit on our best lap, which was unfortunate and that put us back in the mid-pack when we should have been somewhere in the top five to 10 bracket.
"In race one, I got an average start, we had an average pit stop and then we had a rear anti-roll bar drama and I had no adjustment as the fuel load came off. I battled with Steven Johnson the whole race and had the speed on him, but not the drive out of the slower corners to be able to make a move past him.
"I made a good start in the second race and was lucky to avoid all of the chaos in the crash at turn two as we crawled through the smoke screen and fortunately came out the other side.
"After the pit stop, I was running ahead of D'Alberto and he was pushing for a way past and he ran me wide around turn 10, but didn't leave me enough room to come back on.
"As he came through he took out my right front wheel which bent the upright and then I was driving with a steering wheel that had a lot of right-hand down, but up until then we had good car speed and were doing good lap times.
"We got another good start for race three and passed Todd Kelly, Jason Bright, Shane Van Gisbergen, Tony D'Alberto and we were one of the only cars that were passing and basically carved the way through up into ninth.
"That's really where we should have been all weekend if things had gone right because we had the car speed from the moment we arrived. If you'd asked me halfway through, my weekend was worse than a nightmare, but come race three everything fell into place and we got through and got some good points and we're now 12th in the championship... on the whole it wasn't that bad a weekend."
TEAM PRINCIPAL - Paul Cruickshank
"It was a very up and down weekend - when we rolled the car out on Friday it was on the money and Fabian did an excellent job in the practice session to lay down the third fastest time behind Tander and Winterbottom.
"We got held up in qualifying and that had a knock on effect in the races. We had some dramas in races one and two, but turned it around for race three to end the weekend on a positive note, with the Glenfords car again running in the top ten.
"The biggest thing out of the weekend was that none of us gave up - it was a big ask to come back from the down in the mid-pack from race one, and it would have been very easy for us as a team to just settle for those results and to hold on to the position that we had.
"Fabian certainly never gave up fighting at any point and the even though we were all having a bad weekend, everyone was still trying right to the bitter end.
"That's certainly the sign of a strong team which can maintain its determination, focus and drive - that's how you get the results.
"Our main goal was to leave Winton being 12th in the championship - that was a high priority and I am very pleased we achieved that."
