Mini Challenge, Round 3, Barbagallo Raceway, Wannero (WA), May 9th-11th, 2008

[All timing by Natsoft]

Bib Stillwell Mini Garage

Round 3 Photo Gallery

This is Round 3 of the eight round Mini Challenge for 2008, and the scene is Barbagallo Raceway,north of Perth, in West Australia.

Barbagallo is 1.76km in length, and was completed in 1969. Here are two views of the track:

Aerial View	Perspective

Practice

Two practice sessions were held on Friday, May 9th.

The Minis were first up on the program, starting the first 20 minute session at 9:00am. Gary was 8th fastest with a best time of 1:06.5140 within a second of the leader.

In the second session, scheduled later in the morning, the usual suspects moved to the top of the leader board, with Neil McFadyen reasserting himself on pole, followed by Paul Stokell. Those that set the early pace, newcomer Leanne Tander and David Turner slipped down the order as the newcomers got more accustomed to the slippery Wanneroo surface.

Round 3 Highlights: Saturday, May 31 – 1:30pm on Network 7

Qualifying

Light rain before qualifying meant the lap times were down somewhat on practice. V8Supercar driver Damien White was fastest with a best time of 1:10.7043. He was followed by Leanne Tander, recovering some of the speed from her earlier practice or simply using local knowledge, but her time of 1:10.9231 was good enough for second on the grid.

Gar was 10th with a best lap of 1:11.7706, still consistently about one second off the front runners. The beauty of a one-make series is that the cars are all even, and this makes for very close racing.

Race One

Race 1 was the last event on the Saturday program, with 13 laps, starting at 3:45pm. It was an action-packed race but for all the wrong reasons. Guest driver Ben Tune rolled his car on the last corner in the wet conditions causing the race to be red-flagged. Leanne Tander and David Turner took each other out on the first lap, which added to the drama.

Tune was taken to Hospital and it took officials almost 30 minutes to clear up before the race got underway again with a restart. Paul Fiore won the event, with Gary finishing a creditable 8th, improving his lap times to stay in touch with the leaders.

"As a result of a hearing conducted at Barbagallo Raceway this morning, the results of MINI CHALLENGE race one from yesterday have been amended.

Car #30 (Paul Fiore - Shell Helix Ultra) and Car #5 (Nathan Geier - Sherrin Rentals) each received the equivalent of a drive-through penalty for passing under yellow flag conditions during the event.

This penalty equated to a 23 second addition to both drivers' overall race time from race one, dropping them to 12th and 13th position respectively.

The penalty handed down to Geier and Paul Fiore elevated Seven Network personality and Series leader, Grant Denyer (DecoRug Motorsport) to the race winner's position and saw Gary Young (SALTA Constructions) start the top six reverse grid race two from pole position." (Mini Challenge website)

Race 2

"Young was ecstatic with his race win for the SALTA Constructions team. The 2007 Australian Performance Cars Champion has been flying under the radar thus far in MINI CHALLENGE and came to the race track today determined to walk away with a decent result. He controlled the pace from the front of the reverse grid race and deserved his race victory." (Mini Challenge website)

Gary started from pole in Race 2, which was televised live on Network 7. And he lead the race from start to finish, taking maximum points in front of the WA crowd and TV cameras. His time of 1:06.2305 was the 4th fastest for the race and he held off several challenges over the course of the event, mainly from McFadyen.

Leanne Tander set the fastest lap but was relegated to last place with the imposition of a 60 sec penalty by the race officials.

Behind Gary, came a closely following Neil McFadyen and local Nathan Callaghan who had been quick in qualifying.

Race 3

In Race 3 once again, Gary set the 4th fastest time and brought the Salta Properties Mini home in 9th place. V8Supercar driver Damien White led the race from start to finish, dominating the event pretty much as Gary did in Race 2.

Points for Round 3

Gary finished the 3rd round in 5th position overall, with a total of 111 points. This moved him up the Championship table to Sixth position.

[Photo credit: Mini Challenge]