Rock Racing’s Jason Bargwanna is the fastest man after Day 1 of V8 Supercar racing in 2010.
At the conclusion of official testing at Winton Raceway today for Victorian V8 teams, Bargwanna set a time of 1m22.7234, edging out Kelly Racing team-mate Rick Kelly (Jack Daniel’s Racing).
Both drivers set their times on old ‘Sprint’ tyres – the soft compound used by the V8 Supercars category in selected rounds.
Bargwanna’s time was over 0.2s faster than Marcus Marshall’s lap record set at last year’s V8 round in May.
While Bargwanna was happy to be the fastest, the #11 Rock Energy Drink driver said that all signs point towards a competitive season.
“We had a very specific program for the day, and at no time did we spend it looking at the time sheets,” he said.
“We were understanding the car, the changes, and towards the end, we piggy backed on what the other cars did. At the end, we had a bit of a go at the 5pm shoot-out.
“(It’s great) to come out at the end of the first day and be very competitive, but at the end of the day, they don’t give trophies out for test days. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to get to these races and make sure we’re competitive all the time – not just on a Monday at Winton.
“We were obviously on the soft tyres. They’ve been used, similar to what Rick had, but it went well.
“It might be a cliché, but I believe this is my best chance at having a good crack this year. Who knows? Day 1 has gone alright, so we’ll see how the rest goes. It’s a long way between here and Homebush!”
Third fastest at the end of the day was FPR’s Mark Winterbottom (1m23.2144s) ahead of Trading Post Racing’s Jason Bright (1m23.6123s), The Bottle O Racing Falcon of Paul Dumbrell (1m23.6501s) and FPR’s Steven Richards (1m23.6879s).
OFFICIAL TIMES FROM WINTON RACEWAY
1. #11 Jason Bargwanna 1:22.7234
2. #7 Rick Kelly 1:23.1154
3. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:23.2144
4. #14 Jason Bright 1:23.6123
5. #55 Paul Dumbrell 1:23.6501
6. #6 Steven Richards 1:23.6879
7. #3 Tony D’Alberto 1:23.9823
8. #34 Michael Caruso 1:24.3938
9. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1:24.5674
10. #8 Jason Richards 1:24.8358
11. #30 Daniel Gaunt 1:24.9606
12. #15 Todd Kelly 1:25.1786
13. #21 Karl Reindler 1:25.3184
14. #16 Dale Wood 1:25.9832
