Walkinshaw Racing’s Team 18 has put yesterday behind them as they geared up for the final day of the Winton SuperSprint.

Starting positions for today’s 200-kilometre marathon were decided by a 20-minute qualifying session, Lee Holdsworth gracing the top of the time sheets briefly before he settled for 19th, with a best of 1:23.9469.

With majority of the field starting on hard-tyres and following the same strategy, positions were not easy to come by.

A Safety Car deployed on lap 33 saw a scuffle for pit-lane with almost the entire field stacking in, Holdsworth behind stable-mate Slade. The #18 Holden VF Commodore pitted for soft-tyres, with tyre degradation set to play a huge factor for the final 31-lap sprint home.

Holdsworth carved his way up to 16th before he was knocked onto the grass by Andre Heimgartner and pushed way back down to 22nd.

Managing to hold onto his tyres, it was lap 58 when Holdsworth started to move and put on a stunning display to jump seven positions in the final nine laps. The final pass made on Nick Percat with just one lap to go, for 15th.

The team now have a long break to prepare for the Triple Crown Darwin, June 19 – 21.
 

Lee Holdsworth - #18 Holden VF Commodore

Race 12

Started: 19th
Finished: 15th

“We haven’t had the pace and qualifying was a good reflection of that. Again, all four cars struggled and had to make a few more changes for the race to try and get some answers amongst the cars.

“We split our strategy for the race, got off to a good start and made up quite a few positions. We had a good car on the hard tyres but once we went to the softs at the end, had absolutely nothing.

“I got punted off by Heimgartner at turn 1, which didn’t help, and then I conserved the tyres to try and have something to fight with at the end and it worked. I moved up to 15th within the last ten laps.

“There aren’t many positives to take out of it, but the other guys (in the team) seemed like they had a good strategy and good pace, so hopefully there is something to learn from that.”