Will Davison and Mika Salo’s Trading Post Racing Ford Falcon has topped the times in the international co-driver test at Queensland Raceway today.
Ahead of this weekend’s Armor All Gold Coast 600, the #6 factory Ford was the fastest overall ahead of the Fujitsu/GRM Holden of Michael Caruso and James Hinchcliffe.
The second FPR Falcon of Mark Winterbottom and Will Power was third fastest, with Garth Tander and Ryan Briscoe fourth in their #2 Holden Racing Team Commodore on a hot Ipswich day.
The fastest eight overall times were all set during the morning segment of the practice day.
While all 28 cars carried timing transponders, the official timing did not distinguish between Primary and co-drivers.
The special one-off test also included a half hour session for the international co-drivers to simulate race starts in random groups.
In the afternoon session, former Formula 1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi finished on top of the times, setting an impressive 1:10.72s around the 3.1km ‘Paperclip’ on green soft tyres.
Driving the #3 Team Hiflex Ford, Liuzzi eclipsed the #55 Bottle-O Racing Ford of Nick Heidfeld by less than 0.1s.
The Tony D’Alberto/Liuzzi entry, sporting an Italian-themed livery, finished with the fifth fastest time across the two practice segments.
Combined results
| 1 | Trading Post FPR | Will Davison/Mika Salo | 1:09.7796 |
| 2 | Fujitsu/GRM | Michael Caruso/James Hinchliffe | 1:10.0008 |
| 3 | Orrcon Steel FPR | Mark Winterbottom/Will Power | 1:10.2088 |
| 4 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander/Ryan Briscoe | 1:10.3151 |
| 5 | Team Hiflex | Tony D’Alberto/Vitantonio Liuzzi | 1:10.4267 |
| 6 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall/Peter Dumbreck | 1:10.4606 |
| 7 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard/Nicolas Minassian | 1:10.4774 |
| 8 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup/Sebastien Bourdais | 1:10.7065 |
| 9 | The Bottle-O FPR | David Reynolds/Nick Heidfeld | 1:10.7571 |
| 10 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes/Richard Lyons | 1:10.7660 |
| 11 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall/Jamie Campbell-Walter | 1:10.7767 |
| 12 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly/Graham Rahal | 1:10.7890 |
| 13 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb/Marc Lieb | 1:10.8594 |
| 14 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler/Franck Montagney | 1:10.9477 |
| 15 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade/David Brabham | 1:10.9801 |
| 16 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney/David Turner/Ryan Briscoe | 1:10.9867 |
| 17 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi/Lucas di Grassi | 1:10.9994 |
| 18 | SP Tools Racing | Shane van Gisbergen/Jeroen Bleekemolen | 1:11.0178 |
| 19 | IRWIN Racing | Lee Holdsworth/Simon Pagenaud | 1:11.0379 |
| 20 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas/Mike Conway | 1:11.1603 |
| 21 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy/Justin Wilson | 1:11.1904 |
| 22 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Tim Blanchard/Marco Andretti | 1:11.5381 |
| 23 | Team BOC | Jason Bright/Stephane Sarrazin | 1:11.6248 |
| 24 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat/Peter Kox | 1:11.6530 |
| 25 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore/Gianni Morbidelli | 1:11.7126 |
| 26 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson/Max Papis | 1:11.8697 |
| 27 | Fujitsu Racing/GRM | Greg Ritter/Ricky Taylor | 1:12.2823 |
| 28 | VIP Petfoods Racing | Steve Owen/Boris Said | 1:12.3362 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Armor All Gold Coast 600 Race Guide
