Round
1 - 2002
Season
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The 2002 season comprises 5 rounds in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, as a support category to the V8 supercar championship. The first round was held at Phillip Island on the 14th of April. Our car qualified 4th in practice on Friday, but the wrong choice of tyres for Saturday's qualifying saw us slip back to 7th. |
The top ten qualifiers were: Tony Ricciardello, Darren Hossack, Luke Youldon, Kerry Bailey, Steven Voight, Tony Wilson, Dean Randle, Ivan Mikac, Mick Montersosso.
Race 1
We managed to gain three places, finishing fourth behind Ricciardello,
Hossack and Youldon with our best lap time of 1 minute, 36.2. A
severe mid to exit corner understeer probably cost us 1.5 seconds a
lap.
Race 2
Prior to the start of the race 2, we fitted 50lb heavier rear springs
and dropped the rear wing to reduce the exit understeer. The top 10
reverse grid saw us start from position 7, passing 3 cars after Honda hair
pin. A bad vibration in the steering, which was thought to be a flat
tyre, turned out to be a broken power steering belt, but the forced pit stop
put us a lap down and we finished 10th.
The championship points after Round 1 are: Hossack 37, Youldon 32, Monterosso 27, Wilson 25, Ricciardello 21, Roddy 22, Smith 19, Randle 14, Mikac 11, Robinson 10.
The remaining rounds of the championship are as follows, and highlights of each round can be seen on Channel 10's "Trackside Program" after each round:
| Round 2 | Oran Park | June 14 - 16 |
| Round 3 | Oran Park | July 26 - 28 |
| Round 4 | Queensland Raceway | September 13 - 15 |
| Round 5 | Sandown | November 29 - December 1 |