The FW1 Aussie Racing Cars have hit the track in Townsville for practice, qualifying and two races so far this weekend and the Townsville street circuit is turning out to be perfectly suited to the small nimble pocket rockets. The first practice session of the event, held on Friday at 8am in the morning was the first time ARC had ever raced at the circuit and Tyler Owen (Advan Racing) was the driver that came to terms with the track the quickest, posting a time of 1:25.79 which was an impressive 1 second a lap faster than Trent Young who posted the second fastest time.
By Qualifying, series front runner Peter Carr was back up the pointy end posting the fasted time of 1:25.38 from Kyle Clews (1:25.49) and Josh Hunt (1:25.96). This is Josh Hunt’s first drive in the brand new Erebus Motorsport ARC car and I proving to be very fast, qualifying third and finishing second in race 1.
Race 1
It was Peter Carr who got the jump from the line in race 1 and a tight battle between Carr, Clews and Hunt for the next lap followed before Sam Chester and Lauren Gray (La Femme) came together at turn 4 with both cars stranded in the middle of the circuit the race director deployed the safety car. With the recovery process taking several laps to complete and a tight event schedule meant the race was called under safety car with Peter Carr declared the victor from Josh Hunt and 2010 Champion Kyle Clews.
Darren Chamberlin (FW1 Racing Team) took out the masters cup and rounded out the top 10
With the short duration of race one, officials determined that as the race had only run 50% of its expected distance, drivers would be awarded half the available points for that race.
Race 2
Peter Carr and Josh Hunt, the first and second place getters from Race 1 carried DRS (Dynamic Race System parity) for race 2
Peter Car lead into turn one the first time followed by Josh Hunt (Erebus Motorsport) and Kyle Clews. Hunt struggled to maintain track position losing spots to Clews, Owen and Young during lap one but it was Owen who lead for the first two laps of the race. With the mid pack battling each other, the front runners established a small gap and Clews bombed past Owen to take the lead. Owen assumed second position but Carr was pushing hard, A constant battle between the top three saw owen and Carr swap positions several times each lap in the fight for second. Clews looked comfortable in first place with a 2 car length gap back to Carr & Owen. Owen and Carr battled all race swapping positions several times each lap. On lap 4 Trent Young managed to catch the Top three and challenged Owen for third place, passing him at the back of the circuit before Owen fought back a few corners later and regained Third place.
The finishing order was Clews, Carr, Owen, Young and Hunt.
In the Masters Cup it was Darren Chamberlin who collected the most points, finishing ahead of local Shane Dale in the FJ Holden bodied car. This puts Chambo in a good position going into race three (reverse grid) tomorrow morning.
Race three is scheduled for 8:15am Sunday morning and will be a reverse top 10 grid.
DRS update: Peter Carr is currently the fasted car on track finishing First in race 1 and second in race 2 and will carry DRS in race 3. Kyle Clews finished Second in race 2 so he will carry DRS for race three also.