Today at Queensland Raceway, for the seventh round of the V8 Supercar Championship, Sprint Gas Racing’s Jason Richards has experienced both the highs and lows of professional Motorsport.

The day started off in spectacular form when Richard’s had his best ever qualifying at his bogey track, when he placed eighth

Richard’s finished the initial 20 minute qualifying session third, only .2 of a second from pole. At the conclusion of the second leg Richards was second, and in the race for pole Richards was as high as third with 3m 50s remaining.

Unable to extract as much out of his third and final set of new tyres, Richards dropped to eighth by the end of the session. Whilst Richards was disappointed not to have qualified higher it was his best performance in eight visits to the track affectionately known as the paperclip.

“The boys did a sensational job with the car, it felt great right throughout qualifying,” Richards said.

“We made only very small changes after yesterday’s practice session but they made the car feel really good.

“I’ve never had a car that’s felt so good at this track. It says a lot that we had the confidence to sit out sections of each of the first two legs of qualifying when you know that you’ve done enough to make it into the next stage.

“It would have been great to start a bit higher up, but it wasn’t to be. It’s my best qualifying at QR by a lot.

Four hours later, Richards had been punted almost off the track at turn three, dropping from eighth to 15th on the first lap, and finished the race in 16th place.

“I got hit from behind going into turn three,” Richards said.

“Whincup got past me cleanly and someone hit me soon after. I have no idea who it was, but I went very wide and I lost a lot of places.

“The track’s characteristics always change late in the day at QR. The track wasn’t as fast and the car wasn’t feeling as good as it was in qualifying.

“The car was very tailey. I had bad oversteer which made it difficult to drive. I hope we can make it feel like it did in qualifying in tomorrow’s two races.

Greg Murphy qualified his Holden in 19th place and finished today’s race in 15th. Murphy was unable to make an impact on the race with a brake problem.

“The brakes weren’t all that good, I wasn’t able to stop where I wanted to,” Murphy said.

“I was forced to brake early to ensure I’d get through each turn. It obviously prevents you from having a go.

“The car wasn’t great, which is no surprise to anyone to hear me say that. We’ve just got to keep working hard to get it right.”

Source:V8 Latest News