Round 12: Symmons Plains

[Mickcals]

Predictions For Symmons Plains
Well Symmons Plains 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_134.gif





Heres some info to help you decide:

Current Qualifying Record:
Current Lap Record: Craig Lowndes - Holden - 54.5805 - 1999

Past Results

Driver on Pole
1997 - Brock - Holden
1998 - Skaife - Holden
1999 - Radisich - Ford
2000 - N/A - N/A
2001 - N/A - N/A
2002 - N/A - N/A
2003 - N/A- N/A

Round Winner
1997 - Murphy - Holden
1998 - Lowndes - Holden
1999 - Skaife - Holden
2000 - N/A - N/A
2001 - N/A - N/A
2002 - N/A - N/A
2003 - N/A - N/A
.................................................. ..................................................

My Predictions


Ford:

Ambrose: He s leading the championship rather comfortablely at the moment and is looking forward to racing on "home" turf. This will be his first outing on Symmons Plains in the V8 Supercar, but Ambrose has proved that he can be intinstly quick at any track, consider 2001 Adelaide, pole on first outing.

Bargwanna: Bargs has had a good history adn here and judging on form could upset the championship contenders with a podium finish. Hes finished 3rd and 2nd here before and in the last three rounds has finished in the top six. He ll be looking to climb in the championship and try to get a podium finish in the championship.

Lowndes: Has been in incredable form since finishing 2nd at Bathurst. He holds the lap record in a aged VR Commodore, so imagine what he could do with a low spec BA Falcon. Lowndes will be the one to watch trying to heavily impress Triple 888 and his Ford supporters

Holden:

Skaife: showed pace at Indy until his spin which knocked him out of contendition. Will be debuting a new VY Commodore, hopefully it would be first class right out of the box and Skaife would like to make a return to the podium and the Championships ton ten table.

T.Kelly: was very consisent and very difficult to pace letting only Ambrose pace in the 2nd race due to fuel problems on the restart. Todd should be fast and if he stays out of trouble should find himself on the poduim and moving up in the championship

Murphy: going for a trifecta of round wins. Murphy won here back in 1997 with HRT. Now he would like to do it for KRT before he leaves. Murphy will be the one to beat and will be very difficult. He desperately wants to win the championship and isnt interested in finishing 2nd for a 3rd time (finished 2nd in 2002 and 2003 championship)

Underdogs:

Ford: Radisich, Johnson and Ingall
Holden: Bright, Rick Kelly and S.Richards

[Perko_Rulz]

I think Murph will win but I do believe that John Bowe is a huge chance, he knows the track like the beck of his hand and it is his home track.

[Bo0]

I think Lowndes will have a huge chance, he's been going very well since Bathurst and i think he can do it this time 'round.

The regulars will be fast, and with the new surface on the track, it basically puts everyone on an even keel (similar to Barbagallo this year). Experiece may have a factor, but the new surface will be the key.

1st - Lowndes
2nd - Murphy
3rd - Ingall

[Turboginge]

I have to say Murphy cos if he doesnt NZ is screwed

1 Murph
2 Lowndes
3 R. Kelly

[murph_fan]

Heres my top 5 tips:

1st: Skaife - will have a brand new VY and won here before. I think this round he wont have a problem.

2nd: Murphy: Murph will also go very well here, possibly winning a race. Knows the track well and has raced here before, kmart cars have got good speed at the moment.

3rd: Bowe or Bargwanna or S. Richards: All these drivers have done well here and Richo should have the spped to stay up the front. But I probably pick Bowe since its his own home track.

[Y2kGoofball]

it will come down to whose got the I want to win attitude

I think Skaife will try a fair bit. We all know its no use but from the last few events I sense he has changed some things at HRT and is using the end of this year as a trial, and from what Ive seen it seems hes getting it right for next year. Youve got to admit the last few rounds HRT have had strong races. Bathurst was one of them, where their only fault was a 30 cent rubber belt that snapped when they come in for a schedueled driver swap, and once you lose time at the mount its hard to gain.

Indy showed what HRT is capable of, although Skaife admitted to buckling under pressure by mis reading his brake pedal (he thought it went in a bit too far and easily like there was no brake pressure) so he pulled his foot off the brake to pump it again, but he hit the accelerator by mistake which caused the rear wheels to lose traction

Kelly also shone through by placing in the top 3

Murph is my bet, he knows it is possible at this event to put him in contention with Ambrose which is whats going to motivate him. He knows Ambrose has no experience at the track and will test the guy, and as I said earlier a bad qualifier / finish position or a DNF due to damage, and 192 points for Murph (ie 1st), puts them both in the battle

I still say Ambrose is in it, he wants to seal his second championship, but the pressures on

Bright wants to win as well to geep him in contention to take #1 to FPR. What a way to impress your new boss "hey mr boss I got you a presant, no its better then engine reliability, its the #1 from Mr Ambrose and we got it for one whole year!"

[#51]

I have no clue who'll win, but I have some info for you all;

Mark Skaife tried out the new Z series Commodore and it's proven to
be much better and faster than the Y series. He'll be debuting it at
Symmons Plains and is also expect to use it for the rest of the series,
those races will in affect be testing sessions (just during real race conditions).
He says his highly impressed with its performance. :cool:
But as for the race, who knows how the new car will go, considering it's new.

Where'd I find this out, from Neil Crompton on the new internet radio
station he hosts called 'The PanelBeaters' (was listening to it today).
Ya want the link (I hear you say), well here ya go fellas:
http://www.v8supercar.com.au/panelbeaters/default.asp

[Wazza]

My guess...

Murphy will win all the races, and be one step closer to Ambrose. (who will be crashing a lot next weekend). And in the final race in a few weeks, Ambrose will again have some unfortunate circumstances, and Murphy will pick up on those, although not winning every race like next weekend.. And will win the championship by 10 points.

:idea:

[Y2kGoofball]

well

Ambrose has to stay ONE point ahead of Murphy at the end of the weekend to rule Murph out of contention for the 2004 Title heading into Eastern Creek, because as it is Ambrose is only 191 points ahead of Murph, with 192 points on offer!

From memory on todays RPM they said Ambrose had to be 26 or 26 points ahead of Bright to stop him taking the championship. Honestly Im more for the Murph battle because I honestly dont want to see Bright win in a PWR VY and take the #1 to a BA FPR without the number even seeing the Commodore.

[Mickcals]

You guys seem to be forgetting Ambrose has an amazing talent of knowing track even before he races on them - eg: he got pole on his first attempt at Adelaide and Bathurst in 2001, he won the Darwin round first time out in 2001.

And if its not Ambrose your wathcing it will definately be Ingall who ll be a stand out.

[Turboginge]

I like wazzas thinking, I wanna see murph win this year.
I fancy his chances however remote more than brightys for the sheer attitude factor...

Whats the chances of Jas giving Marcus shit after a race like Murph did, not a lot.

Be more like Yes Mr Ambrose No Mr Ambrose how do you have your coffee Mr Ambrose.

Cmon Murph win this one.

[Wazza]

Interesting racing. With a strong performance from Ambrose, but those cursed problems, possibly from Murph fans praying.. ;)

So Ingall was round winner with 170 points, and
Murphy 2nd on 166!

So the championship remains alive, and goes in for the grand finale in 3 weeks, where Ambrose must again have some fault, and Murphy to win, to take the 2004 crown!

[Turboginge]

Who would have thought...

Ambrose DNF
Murphy 1st

Talk about a long shot but hey we'll take it.

Bring on Eastern Creek

I do have to wonder about Ingalls shunt on R kelly though.. if Ambrose can mistake Rick for Murph then surely so can Russell... was it deliberate

He certainly had the motivation.... being Ambroses teammate and all

Its a thought.

[VSV6]

Naw mate
Rick's car had an engine failure, Ingall just helped him get into the wall faster ^_^
Good on Ingall for winning the round, don't see him winning enough, I think too much attention (in the team) is put towards Ambrose who is a pillock :D

151pts margin, close but I'm unsure if Murphy can do it, he isn't traditionally good around here (or Oran Park for that matter, must be NSW eh?)
Either way I will be there cheering him on!
If something flings out from the crowd onto Ambrose's car it'll probably be me who threw it ^_^

Cheers
-Mike

[VQ]

I heard that he won on the radio, thank god he's out.

[skaife_fan]

Hey Mike you weren't involved in that incident at Bathurst involving Dick Johnson named 'The Rock' wre you? :rolleyes:

[Perko_Rulz]

The rock, lol!

[Y2kGoofball]

well the thing is Murph now has the motivation.

By race 1 this weekend he finished behind Ambrose, when he knew dammn well he had to be in front to be a possibility, he finished 11th ambrose 2nd

Race 2 was a bit better, Murph finished 4th and Ambrose 1st, still though he wasnt in front of Ambrose and although by this time I refused to let into the thought of it being Ambroses 2nd Championship win I am certain there were alot of people out there sure there was no way for Murphy could fight back from here to be a possibility, even Bill Woods was talking about it being a long shot and fairly impossible

Race 3 is when I thought it was all over when I saw Ambrose had more car pace then the front runners (once again) ... how do you pass a faster car?

But then car pace is nothing when youve got an oil leak

So going into Eastern Creek Murphy has that added motivation now, not to rely on a problematic SBR car because traditionally they dont have problems, but to finish in front of Ambrose by all accounts

Hopefully tho Murphy doesnt rely on the wet like how he relied on Ambrose never racing at Symmonds Plains, and him having the advantage, the Creek is traditionally a wet track (and when it rains it pours) and we all know Ambrose announces his dislikes for the wet in a V8 but for some reason on track he rarely shows it, especially when it counts

[Perko_Rulz]

Ambrose announces his dislikes for the wet in a V8 but for some reason on track he rarely shows it, especially when it counts

Very True, take last year for instance, he won the championship at EC and it was pissing down rain.

[VSV6]

Skaife_fan: naw that was my dad ^_^

Not sure about it going to rain here at Eastern Creek, It's been on and off for weeks its either bloody hot or freezing cold, so predictions are all out.

I am counting on Ambrose to stuff up in the night race, I mean nobody in the catagory (excluding Cam Mconville at bat 24hr) has really done a lot of night time racing.
But experience around the track can help in low visabilty situations, because you know the track well, Ambrose hasn't been here that often - however the cool air will probably just make their engines preform better :mad:

My predictions are out, I have a literal no idea who will win only a hope :rolleyes:

Cheers
-Mike

[Perko_Rulz]

Skaife has experience with night racing I think, they used to race Friday nights at Calder. The glowing discs are cool as!

[monaro]

i cant wait for crompo to call the night races, he's confused in the day time let alone pitch black.

[murph_fan]

Just admit it Ambrose has won...

It looks like Ambrose pretty much just needs to turn up. This is how I see it:

Current positions(Natsoft):
Marcos Ambrose 1982
Greg Murphy 1831

Worst case scenario for Ambrose:
The closest competitor is Greg Murphy. Assuming he gets maximum points in the last round he will end up with 2023 points, which is the worst case scenario for Ambrose. This means that Ambrose would need 42 to stay ahead. He could achieve this by finishing 26th in all three races.

If Ambrose was to DNF one of the races he would need to come 22nd and 23rd in the other two to ensure victory.

If Ambrose was to DNF two of the races he would need to come 12th in the other one to ensure victory. This means that if Ambrose comes 12th or better in the first race he wins the championship.

If Ambrose was to DNF all of the races then Murphy needs 152 points. He could get this by coming 8th, 8th, and 7th in the three races. He has failed to do this in three of the twelve rounds so far. He has averaged 153 points per round.
&(

[VSV6]

Yeh Ambrose has it in the bag, especially when you look at those stats! :eek:

I say it every year (at the start) a championship is nice but everyone remembers Bathurst :D

Seriously how many Championships did Brock win? only 3
Bathurst has been and will always be the fact that is remebered

Ford still has to win another 3 (If Ambrose wins again) to beat Holden's 5 in a row :D
Why can't Lowndes be winning the competition instead of Ambrose, he is much more likeable!

Cheers
-Mike

[VQ]

because he moved to Ford....

[VSV6]

Good answer :D

Cheers
-Mike

[Turboginge]

Yes very good answer Veeq

and to you Murph I was wondering about wwho would have to finish where in order to do what.

But..........

No one expected Ambos car to fail in race three and i imagine least of all Murphy so until the checkered flag at the end of race three i will be praying for Amobo to break and Murph to win,

Call me an optimist...it is wat i am..

[Y2kGoofball]

Call me an optimist...it is wat i am.. it worked didnt it

Although its cutting it fine there is still the possibility at Eastern Creek. I'm sure we wont see Ambroses car fail again, thats a strong certainty, but that aside if Murphs seriously got the drive there to at least be 1st in the races you never know your luck ...

Personally tho between Ambrose, Murph and Bright if Murph cant take the #1 I would preferr Ambrose because I dont think FPR deserve the #1 next year thanks to a new driver that won it from a Holden team the previous year ^_^

[Mickcals]

well it should be a very good race at Eastern Creek.

But as we saw at Symmons Plains anything can happen, but i think Bill Woods jinxed Ambrose cause just before the 3rd race started Woods said that anything can happen even a seized motor, and then 2 to 3 laps into the race Ambrose has engine trouble, but what was strange was that all the leading cars got hit.

Ambrose had engine troubles, Todd Kelly and Rick Kelly both had engine problems and to a lesser extent Garth Tander.

...................

I thought that i might add this point there were a heap of outstanding drivers who really shined at Symmons Plains:

Holden:

Cameron McConville did a great job to finish in the top five at the end of the day.

Also i think Todd Kelly has showed that he is ready to replace Skaife as the number one driver at HRT as he was having a great weekend until his engine blew.

Richo had a good race after being a mid-field driver for a while finsihing third.

Ford:

Mark Winterbottom and Warren Luff had some very god results respectivily. Winterbottom is currently sitting in 12th position with a chance to make the top 10 in his first year. Luff finished in the top 10, which i think is his best individaul result (best result 3rd at Sandown)

Also Johnson seems to be finding his feet, sitting 11th in the championship and finsihing 6th overall.

Ellery and Besnard also were strong, with Besnard who might be the winner for race 3 (but i highly doubt it)

[Bo0]

Yeah you would have thought that there would have been a bigger probasbility of brake failures than engine dramas, as it doesnt look like to be a engine-demanding track.

What was wthe deal with besnard, skaife and bright counting an extra lap on their telemetry due to the safety-car fiasco? it's pretty funny the way that it turned out, and a mistake you wouldn't expect to see from avesco/tega.

[Perko_Rulz]

Well the commentators curse struck Ambrose the way Billy said it would. Kmart may want to put hime on the payroll. Maybe the CC might strike 3 times in a row at EC!!!!!

[Mickcals]

Well maybe Murphy's back might seize up again ^_^