Russell Ingall is hopeful of turning in a competitive performance at this weekend’s Coates Hire Ipswich 300 after producing a rare session-topping lap in practice today.
Ingall, who has not tasted victory a V8 Supercars Championship race since his title-winning 2005 season, beat fellow veteran Craig Lowndes to the top spot in the dying minutes of the day’s fourth and final practice session.
Coincidentally, Ingall and Lowndes shared the race wins during the category’s first visit to Queensland Raceway in 1999.
While Ingall’s resume contains a championship, two Bathurst 1000s and a total of 27 championship race victories, the now Walkinshaw Racing pilot says that generally lean results in recent seasons have made him appreciate days like today.
“I think these sort of days become more special,” said Ingall after being reminded of his inaugural Queensland success.
“Probably in Craig’s instance he’s still expected to be here (at the front), so that’s why these sort of days are a little bit special on my side of things.
“It’s nice to know that you can still pull a lap time and be competitive. Hopefully that’ll continue on for the weekend and we can have a good weekend.”
Although practice speeds today were typically dominated by tyre condition, Ingall insisted that a set-up change made to his Supercheap Holden in the second half of the final 20 minute hit-out played a major role in his launch to the front.
“Today was fairly enjoyable because when we rolled the car out, it was pretty evil, it wasn’t good at all, and we managed to make it good,” he said.
“It was a credit to the guys. I started to panic a little bit during the first session, but everyone kept their head and worked through it.
“When we got to the end (of the session) we had a bit of a swing at it (the set-up) and all of a sudden it sparked up.”
Ingall says he’s expecting John Bowe’s 1999 qualifying record of 1:09.26s to be under threat tomorrow, but does not believe that the track’s new surface has helped to improve tyre life.
“There was a little bit left on the table,” said Ingall, who had been 24th and 13th fastest in the two earlier practice sessions in which he was allowed to compete.
“I think a 9.4 was achievable today, and going on what I saw when I had a snoop around here at the test day last week, I think we’ll see pretty low 9s tomorrow.
“There’s no doubt that the bumps into two are a lot nicer than they were. Turn 1 still gets your attention, but (Turns) 2 and 3 are definitely smoother.
“I was expecting a huge increase in grip but surprisingly enough it’s not really like that. It still slides around, and make no mistake, after 10 laps you’re going to be hanging on.
“It’ll still make for interesting racing. You won’t see cars driving too straight, you’ll see the rear-ends hanging out after about 15 laps.”
This weekend marks Ingall’s 212th ATCC/V8 Supercars Championship event start – equalling the marker of the late Peter Brock in third on the all-time list.
Ingall currently sits 20th in the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship with a best result of 11th achieved three times across the opening 15 races.
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Coates Hire 300 Race Guide
