A top ten finish was within reach for Bundy Red Racing’s Fabian Coulthard at the Sucrogen Townsville 400 today but it was quickly snatched away after the #24 Commodore experienced a steering issue on the final lap of the race.
After starting back in 19th position, Coulthard quickly moved inside the top ten. By lap nine he was sitting in ninth place and a solid result was looking likely.
He managed to maintain his position throughout two pit stops; one on lap 20 and the other 24 laps later and he held his ground battling for position as the race approached three quarters race distance.
On lap 70, Coulthard gained another position to move back into tenth place. Despite his surge forward a steering failure on the final lap left him stranded on the Reid Park circuit. He was unable to complete the race.
However it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the 27 year old Kiwi who made significant progress throughout the weekend. Even Toll HRT’s Garth Tander, who finished third in today’s race, acknowledged the effort the team has been putting in.
“It is a shame for Fabian and for all the Bundy boys because they have been working really hard with not many results and they deserve to have a top ten finish,” Tander said.
Coulthard’s team-mate, Andrew Thompson, had another difficult day with the 22 year old forced out of the race with mechanical issues.
Thompson was driving remarkably well during the first stint of the race and was knocking on the door of the top ten cars. However he started to experience handling issues with the #10 Bundy Red Racing Commodore which was making the car difficult to drive.
The team called him in a few laps earlier than planned for his first pit stop in order to investigate the problems he was reporting. A change of tyres and a few adjustments didn’t seem to fix the problem – car 10 was back in again two laps later.
The crew spent time frantically examining every inch of the car to try and diagnose the issue however nothing seemed to resolve the problem. After losing too many laps, Thompson bailed out of the car.
Ford’s Mark Winterbottom won the race, James Courtney was second with Toll HRT’s Garth Tander claiming his second podium finish for the weekend and taking the third placed trophy.
The V8 Supercar Championship Series now takes a break and will resume in September for the L&H 500
Fabian Coulthard - #24 Bundaberg Red Racing VE Commodore (Qualifying: 19th, Race 16: DNF)
“The overall outcome of today’s race is very disappointing but to have the car speed we had and to get up to where we were was promising. We definitely had the pace but unfortunately we weren’t able to convert it into a result today. The race itself was pretty good. We started 19th and after a handful of laps we were up into 10th, where we remained up until the last lap. We have all worked hard, we have shown potential this weekend with the amount of new things we have learned and being able to make improvements each session is something we haven’t been able to do this year. We are making good progress and we now have a solid direction so it is really disappointing not to get a result for the boys.
Andrew Thompson - #10 Bundaberg Red Racing VE Commodore (Qualifying: 22nd, Race 16: DNF)
“We were up as high as 13th at one stage in that race and after starting in 22nd we had made up a lot of ground. We were progressing along really well and the car was good but then something suddenly went wrong and we started to lose speed and something let go in the rear which meant the car just lost its balance. We pitted and played around with a few things to try and find what the problem was but we weren’t able to fix it and we still haven’t been able to find a solution to the issue. It was a promising day that turned into disappointment for everyone in the team. That has sort have been our season this year and hopefully soon we can string everything together and try and get a result and show what we can do.”
See also
- Top 15 finish for Coulthard at Townsville 400 race 1
