Slick pit work and one of Jason Richards’ “best drives” of the year saw Team BOC recover from P21 on the grid to P7 at the chequered flag in Darwin today.
At one point the crew looked set for a podium after beating Kelly Racing in pit lane to rejoin third, with clear track behind. However the soft tyre element, which had helped Richards make up position in the first stint of the 200km race, then made it impossible for him to defend the position in the last and he dropped to seventh.
Team BOC will swing into action again at Townsville from July 9-11.
Jason Richards
Team BOC
“Ten laps from home I was sitting on a podium with clear track behind me but unfortunately the guys on softs but an end to that! Qualifying poorly meant I had to use the soft tyres getting to the front at the beginning of the race.
“It’s a success in the fact that the race car is the best it’s ever been. We punched some good consistent laps even on the soft tyre, which is a change of form because we’ve struggled on them in the past.
“The race set-up was very stable but the qualifying car is very nervous and unfortunately the green tyres didn’t mask that today.”
Brad Jones
Team Co-Owner
“What a brilliant recovery! It’s probably one of the best drives I’ve seen Jason have this year. If he’d have qualified around where they were yesterday we would have been 20 seconds down the road from where he finished. It was slick pit work; we beat the Kellys out of the box and that rarely happens so it was a fantastic job by everyone.”
QUALIFYING, RACE 14
01 Alex Davison, SBR, 1:10.0614
02 Jamie Whincup, 888, +0.0002
03 Mark Winterbottom, FPR, +0.0101
04 Todd Kelly, Kelly Racing, +0.1011
05 James Courtney, DJR, +0.2197
06 Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing, +0.2563
07 Craig Lowndes, 888, +0.3284
08 Lee Holdsworth, GRM, +0.3925
09 Steven Johnson, DJR, +0.4164
10 Shane Van Gisbergen, SBR, +0.4284
21 Jason Richards, Team BOC, + 0.5913
RACE 14
01 Jamie Whincup, 888
02 Mark Winterbottom, FPR
03 Shane Van Gisbergen, SBR
04 James Courtney, DJR
05 Craig Lowndes, 888
06 Tim Slade, SBR
07 Jason Richards, Team BOC
08 Todd Kelly, Kelly Racing
09 Rick Kelly, Kelly Racing
10 Steve Richards, FPR
