Ford Wins

[Alan Jones]

EXCELLENT,
congrats to little Dick and The Rat. Really enjoyed today and finishes like this one make it all the more special.
What a finish, the scriptwriters couldn't have done it better if they tried. Bad luck to Ingall and Larry.
Go the FORDS

[marcus]

wow what a finish...shame about the red flag but thats racing...DJR had to wait 9 years to get payback for bathurst 92.
well done to Jnr and the rat but I was hoping Ingall and larry could hang on but as we all know the rules stand and the shell car was awarded the win.

I certainly hope Crash test didnt drown in the flood that happened at the end.

Must say putting Matthew white and greg crick in the cars at the start may not have been the smartest move the stone brothers have ever had and they can be thankfull that no one hit white when he bogged it down ...experience will always overcome youth in a pressure situation like that ..and Ambrose and besnard have been doing it all year and they should have started first ..hindsight is a wonderfull thing.

[Airhead]

An excellent result. And suprise suprise an interesting race for once.

[Wrex]

What a finish!! Very close all day and I must say the rightful winners were declared. Very tough luck for Larry & Co. but as you said Marcus, Dick had a credit for one of those.

Also have to agree with the Stone Bro comment. What were they thinking. There were a few weird choices today.

Bad Luck also to Bowe, took a gamble and lost. But hey, it could have been the drive of the race.

[Alan Jones]

Yes Wrex,
Bowe was looking good there for a while. Also bad luck to Crompton and Craig, was hoping for a better finish for them today. And top marks to the fan who came over to congratulate The Rat,worst looking dude of the year Think he was sponsored by the Brisbane Council??

[DNQ]

It's Bathurst 1992 all over again - only this time it's good for Dick

Gee I was mad when the Rat lost it with only laps to go. With Bathurst 92 in my mind, that red flag was the best thing that could have happened.

Bad luck for Larry and Russ, but great to see a Blue Oval at the top for once! Let's see if Ford can take the 500/1000 double.

[tickfordchick]

YAY!!

[mtpanorama]

Excellent stuff.

It is great to see the Fords on top again.

Skaife wouldnt have known what to do at the end of the race, he didnt have to get up on the podium for a change

Bring on Bathurst is all i can say.

BTW, are you sure that wasnt crashtest running out to congratulate "The Rat"

[Crash Test]

Yes, i drowned...

What an incredible day...just watching the tape, trying to pick myself out of the crowd on tv

[AGGY]

Yes a great format,5hrs total,i don`t want to get up early anymore.

[HoldenAngel]

The red flag certainly gave the race a sour note in the end. Personally I think it was the wrong decision, a few of the teams read the weather right and came in when the rain was only light, to put on their wets (ie HRT) and then the whole saga began. I think the race was stopped seconds too early, as Ingall was nearly at the start/finish line he would have taken the race based on that lap. Others had come off before DJR and they decided not to stop the race .... but I will leave it there! DJR did pretty good all day, the Rat raced well. The run home to the end of the season should be a great spectacle, with the points scores getting closer.

[marcus]

it is a touchy rule thats for sure..but I dont see any other way of doing it ..they cant let the cars race back to the line like nascar for safety reasons so the best way is to take it back to the last fully completed lap and whoever was leading then wins the race ..its a grey area but thats the way it is and you have to respect larry and Russell for accepting the decision valiantly (allthough Larry feels they won the race moraly)
probably true but rules are rules.

was impressed with a few guys Brad Jones/john Cleland ,paul weel/tim leahy, adam macrow/luke youlden all did a pretty good job.

felt let down about the second kmart car of rick kelly/nathan pretty breaking down before the start like that ..oh well i guess they are feeling a little worse than I am about it..i was really looking forward to seeing how they would go.

all in all a good days racing and probably the best ive seen at QR...cant wait for bathurst now.

[Crash Test]

Thinking about it, it was a really to day for QR. Not only did they get a big crowd (especially after it rained for much of the morning), but the there weren't many traffic problems, except for when 12,000 cars head for the gate at the same time, there was a top race (see, I told you there can be great racing out there ), and they have VIP Petfoods back on board for next year.

10/10 girls and boys

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by AGGY
Yes a great format,5hrs total,i don`t want to get up early anymore.

Oh? I thought your objection to Bathurst was it went too long and deprived you of your video games?

[AGGY]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Oh? I thought your objection to Bathurst was it went too long and deprived you of your video games?

I play computer games only,Bathurst on one tape would be fine,save me having to be a slave to the TV`s schedule.

[Ray Bell]

Okay... you're choosing to run your tape at standard play speed only so you can avoid being a slave to a TV programme...

Yep, I'm getting the picture.

[DNQ]

Originally posted by HoldenAngel
The red flag certainly gave the race a sour note in the end. Personally I think it was the wrong decision, a few of the teams read the weather right and came in when the rain was only light, to put on their wets (ie HRT) and then the whole saga began. I think the race was stopped seconds too early, as Ingall was nearly at the start/finish line he would have taken the race based on that lap. Others had come off before DJR and they decided not to stop the race .... but I will leave it there!

Oh well, payback for Bathurst 1992

[racer69]

Just wondering, Radisich ended up in the turn one sand trap while in second place, and as he was spinning off the red flags came out, or thats how it looked on telly, which would mean he was in second and would have crossed the line behind Ingall, or is the rule that every car must complete the lap?

With 4 laps to go a red flag is a bit pointless, the race was nearly over, if there was 20 or so laps to go then fair enough, but would it have hurt to go round for 5 or so more minutes, and it stopped raining a few minutes later, waste of a good finish

[HoldenAngel]

Originally posted by DNQ


Oh well, payback for Bathurst 1992

And you think they would have cleared up the "grey areas" in the rules since then....

[RaceTime]

Originally posted by racer69
Just wondering, Radisich ended up in the turn one sand trap while in second place, and as he was spinning off the red flags came out, or thats how it looked on telly, which would mean he was in second and would have crossed the line behind Ingall, or is the rule that every car must complete the lap?

When the red flag is displayed the lap currently being completed is discarded completely and the results are taken back to the last completed lap recorded.

Now - for a new scenario - the way I saw it - they hung the red flag out just before Ingall crossed the control or start/finish line. *IF* they had actually let him cross the line before showing the red flag, Ingall would have been declared the eventual winner.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Some say they should have waited 3 or 4 laps and not bothered with the red flag, maybe, maybe not, but surely they could have waited 5 seconds! It all looked a little too subjective to me.

Sure DJ suffered at the hands of this rule 9 years ago, but shouldn't somone have fixed the problem by now. It's really very easy, if the race is redflagged, in addition to the current rules, in order to be considered a finisher, a car must return to parc ferme, under it's own power, without outside assistance within say 10 or 15 minutes of the red flag being shown. Problem solved, no more crashed or beached cars wining races.

I was very impressed with the way LP and Bingle handled the situation, i'd have been livid, rather like DJ in '92.

I was amazed how many number 2 drivers started the race, surely if you have two drivers and two stops, the star should start and finish and put the spare in for the lunchtime stint.

We left at 11am and had no traffic problems.

Crash, there's sonme clear footage of you in the pits, at one piont you're so close to the camera aI thought you were being interviewd.

Folks, Crashh Test was a pit reporter for the circuit commentary, he has dark hair and was wearing a black fire proof suit, with orange on top.

[Ray Bell]

No real grey area... the idea is that the race is declared as at the start of the lap when the flag is displayed and that gives everyone a fair shot at it...

But let's forget this business of a payback for Dick... he had already won a red-flagged Bathurst before that.. and then he reckoned he was robbed too!

Given the circumstances at QR, I would say it was absolutely wrong to do what they did, Ingall should have been allowed to go over the line. It would appear to me it was Queensland favouritism at work... there is a long history of this kind of strange thing happen in Qld... going back (in my memory) to the ATCC at Lakeside in 1964.

[Crash Test]

69- If it stoped raining as soon as they pulled out the red flag, the track was still **** for a good 30 mins..

David- Yeah, i taped the race, and I was in it about 20 times When Bill Woods is interviewing Tony Cochrance, I'm the dang fool walking around in the background...but that one at the end when they were interviewing Steven- well.... my explanation for that is I had just run the complete length of pit straight in the rain, thats why I was looking a little out of it

Re- red flag and its timing- There is no doubt in my mind that it had to come out. Timing- that's life, get over it. The drivers were radioing in about 30-60sec beforehand that they wanted it stopped, and by the time most of them had their messages relayed to race control, the flag would have been out.

[Ray Bell]

What I saw on Sports Tonight (waiting and waiting for the item, then had a phone call just as it started! Didn't hear a word!) showed it was super wet all right... and it would have to be stopped.

But, that said, I believe the red flag has been shown more times in Queensland than any other state in the last forty years... Frank Leggatt caused it twice on his own!

[Crash Test]

I'm told that Tim Shenken was the one who pulled the pin. Love him or hate him, he made the right call...heck, from all reports from those in the dry comfort of the tower, they couldn't actually see anything out of the windows, it was pounding down that hard.

It has rained that hard twice at QR for car racing. The first time was a state championship meeting which used the cross overs- of course they filled with water, and they had to make other arrangements. The second time, they simply pulled the pin for an hour, dug trenched, had the 4WDS out there trying to disperse the puddles.

A problem with it in the last 12-18 months is that it has become very bumpy in the braking areas, and of course all of these lumps and bumps fill with water, and if you hit one, you have no hope of regaining control. Another thing which someone has brought up is the fact that it hadn't rained out there in a fair while, so there was an awful lot of oil and gunk brought out of the track....not nice.