Round 8: Oran Park

[Mickcals]

Predictions For Oran Park
Well Oran Park is only a week away so lets have some suggestions on whose going to win.
pic of Map:
http://www.v8supercars.com.au//v8data/crct/crct_125.jpg



Heres some info to help you decide:

Current Qualifying Record: Mark Skaife - Holden - 1.07.4806 -1999

Current Lap Record: Craig Lowndes - Holden - 1.08.0631- 1999

Past Results

Driver on Pole
1998 - Lowndes - Holden
1999 - Skaife - Holden
2000 - Skaife - Holden
2001 - Lowndes - Ford
2002 - Ambrose - Ford
2003 - Ambrose - Ford

Round Winner
1998 - Lowndes - Ford
1999 - Skaife - Holden
2000 - Skaife - Holden
2001 - Skaife - Holden
2002 - Skaife - Holden
2003 - Ambrose - Ford
.................................................. ..................................................

My Predictions:

Ford:

Ambrose: Well he won here that year making it seven in a row for Ford. I think he ll be strong and wanting to regain some lost points from Winton
Lowndes: He finsihed second here last year, and seems to find success at both Sydney based tracks (Eastern Creek the other). If FPR give him a good car he ll more than likely make the top five.
Bowe: He won at this track back in 1993 (or 94), he would have finished in the top five at Winton but two drive throught penaltys cost him dearly

Holden:

Rick Kelly: Will be looking to fix his mistake at Winton and get a round win. He should fast and the one to watch out for
S.Richards: didnt have the best of runs at Winton but was up there for a while. He too will be trying to regain some lost points from Winton
Bright: was in position to win at Winton but collided with Skaife which cost him the win and almost third place. He ll also be looking to defend his lead in the championship

Underdogs:

Ford: Ingall, Seton, Radisich
Holden: Murphy, J Richards, McConville

[Y2kGoofball]

My predictions

1st - Murphy or Bright
2nd - Murph or Bright
3rd - Possibly Rick Kelly, Marcos Ambrose or Steve Richards

If I had to pick...

1st - Bright
2nd - Ambrose
3rd - Murph
4th - Richards
5th - R Kelly

[Mickcals]

very Holden based answer Y2k.

Anyway yesterday (becasue i was bored) i thoguh that id sit down and see if anyone else could win the championship and it seems that the championship my fall in Ingalls lap if Ambrose, Bright, Richo, R Kelly and Murphy arent careful.

All Ingall needs is for the top three to have a bad race and Ingall could easily overtake them especially if he gets a round win.

With the Enduro's coming up there is a lot of pressure, case if your co-drivers dont peform you could easily be left out of the championship race

[VQ]

I have missed out ont he tipping com, but my predictionare similar to y2k's cos I think fors gonna go crap this weekend.

[murph_fan]

Oran Park is next weekend VQ.
August 13-15th.
My Predictions:

1. Bright - will want to keep the championship lead.
2. R.Kelly - want to get into the championship lead, so he's well placed for the enduro's.
3. Lowndes - will get on the podium if he has a good car, now that they've got a new team manager, and also FPR would want to get a good result for good driver next season.
4. Ambrose - will want to regain the championship lead.
5. S. Richards - will want to regain the championship lead.

[Bo0]

I have missed out ont he tipping com, but my predictionare similar to y2k's cos I think fors gonna go crap this weekend.

isnt that what you hope for every round? :P

SBR will as usual be there-abouts up top, they have showen some consistencyt here and should be up in the top 5.

Brighty will also do well, along with Stevey Richards.

Providing that FPR have got the hint and now decide to get their act together, Lowndes should be up in the top 10.

Bowe and Tander will be the two to watch, they have shown promise over the past few meetings and may take on the rest of the field.

KRT at winton proved to be very fast and took advantage of the leading teams' mishaps, and they will be the team to watch, should be very consistent.

my top 5:
1 - S. Richards
2 - Bright
3 - Ambrose
4 - R. Kelly
5 - Bowe

[Perko_Rulz]

my list:

1.Ambrose Won last year, only ford driver driving well.

2.Bright Running well this year, wants to be on a higher step this week.

3.Murph Wants to taste some more champaign

4.Richo I don't think he has the speed at the moment. It seems to be slowing
down lately.

5.McConville He will be out to show that Winton was no fluke

[lewi]

Friday Practice Completed.

Early signs look good for Holden (nuts! :P) You'll be suprised at the top 3!!!!

http://www.v8supercar.com.au/v8data/2004/evnt_164/raceresult.asp?ssn=2004&ind=M&rid=331&eid=164&ts=PS

Lewi

[murph_fan]

Top10 Shootout:

Skaife
T. Kelly
Wills
J. Richards
Ambrose

Race #1:

Skaife
Ambrose
Ingall
Bright
T. Kelly

Race #2:

Ambrose
Skaife
Bright
Ingall
T. Kelly

Round Overall:

Ambrose 189
Skaife 189
Bright 177
Ingall 177
T Kelly 162

Championship:

Bright 1308
Ambrose 1295
S. Richards 1261
R. Kelly 1197
Ingall 1159
Murphy 1108
T Kelly 1059
Tander 975
Bowe 836
Bargwanna 790

Overall it was a good round to watch, but Skaife unfortantly almost crashed into Ambrose at the pit entry therefore making Skaife having to go around another lap, losing 5-6 seconds from it. Can't wait for Sandown now!

[VQ]

damn, too bad ambrose didn't crash, at least bright is still leading.

[murph_fan]

apparently Ambrose thanked all the Ford teams for letting him past at the end of race 2. Otherwise he might of crashed with someone.

[VQ]

lol damn ford drivers, where were the holden drivers to stop him getting through?

[Mickcals]

Interesting results how both 1st/2nd tied and 3rd/4th tied.

What are the odds of that happening again :?

It was a good race, another strong performance from SBR especially in the first race with Ambrose coming from 5th to finish 2nd and Ingall coming from 9th to finish 3rd.

Congrats to Bright for making the poduim, especially after having his engine blow in the Friday practice.

FPR had a good run both their engines survived the race 8)~

Good to see a Jason Richards up at the pointy end of the feild, i think next year he ll be a real shoe-in to win the event

[murph_fan]

Did you guys hear about the Sabotage crisis?

In Practise #1, Bright was on the outlap when he stalled his car. The team took Car #50 back to the pits and found a plastic bag wrapped around the throttle. The engine became seized too, and so when the team stripped the engine back, they found some nuts and washers in the cylinders!! 20cm in size, the nuts/washers have no part in the engine!

Read here for full story:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10454174%255E23770,00.html

Although, I reckon its a big wake up call for everyone, because PWR left the 500,000$ cars out during Tursday night.

Also, Richards (Steven) has been given a 25 second time penalty in Race 1 I think, because he took out Jason Bargwanna. He came 7th, and now is pushed back to 11th overall in that race. David Besnard also got a time penilty.

And just for fun - Round Tippings:

Y2kGoofBall:
1st - Bright 1
2nd - Ambrose 1
3rd - Murph 0
4th - Richards 0
5th - R Kelly0

Shane (Me)
1. Bright 1
2. R.Kelly 0
3. Lowndes 0
4. Ambrose 1
5. S. Richards 0

BoO
1 - S. Richards 0
2 - Bright 1
3 - Ambrose 1
4 - R. Kelly 0
5 - Bowe 0

Perko_Rulz
1.Ambrose 2
2.Bright 1
3.Murph 0
4.Richo 0
5.McConville 0

Points - 2 if you get the driver in the right position, 1 if you get him in the top 5.

where were the holden drivers to stop him getting through?

He (Ambrose) got INGALL to smash all the Holdens out of the way! j/k

[Bo0]

Yeah it was a great race, from both holden and ford idols to be sitting in the infield one week to pretty much tie the race was great for both ford and holden fans.

i forgot all about the voting for that lool, after missing a few rounds, i whacked in the oran park results straight after the winton race so i wouldn't miss out, 2 pts yeah! that now doubles my tally lol.

Yeah about that sabotage issue, it sure is a wake up call for security and stuff, but it seems a little suss to me for nobody to notice that there was a plastic bag in the engine, surely somebody would have noticed before they rolled it out of the team garage. :confused:

[Y2kGoofball]

no, it was IN THE AIRBOX

they didnt find it till they pulled the damaged engine out and had to open the airbox!

I also heard Weels steering was a bit dodgey!

theres something going on because Kees Weel said in the Sydney papers that their not following it any further, they refuse to have the police involved, and its just bad luck it happened, yet Cochrane said that not only will there be more security in the future but they should get the police involved and find out who did it!

I thought it was a boring race, and pretty darn cold

On the plus side both me and Mickcals made it on TV!! We're in the grandstand, if anyone taped it I'll let you know where

although I'm upset because after the race they zoomed in right to where we were sitting only moments before, but we headed off to try and get free pit access and a final sweep of the merchandise trucks :rolleyes:

[Mickcals]

Yeah Ambrose isnt happy about the way PWR went around telling the public about that sabotage.

He reckons they should have had the cops come around Friday night when they found the problem.

Any way heres something interesting all of Ambrose's round wins since Oran Park last year have been clouded by controvesty:

2003 Eastern Creek Main Event: The Ingall/Skaife incident overshadowed his round and championship win
2004 Clipsal 500: Was overshadowed by the Turn 8 Sweep crashed caused by Paul Dumbrell
2004 QLD 300: Overshadowed by technical breaches
2004 Oran Park: Overshadowed by sabotage on the PWR cars

So when you look at it Ambrose isnt happy that everytime he wins its always controvestral and his spotlight seems to be stolen away from him.

Im thinking that it happened within the team, maybe someone heard that Bright was leaving didnt like and thought they'd ruin his championship, cause if bright does win the championship PWR wont be getting the No 1 pit bay or the No 1 on the side of the car, which ever team Bright goes to will get those privileges