Audi’s Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot have claimed an emotional first victory during an historic opening race at Highlands Motorsport Park in New Zealand as part of the final round of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli.
Salmon, a dual Bathurst 12-Hour winner, and Talbot who has less than 18 months racing experience, battled some of V8 Supercar’s best to claim a popular victory in the dying stages of the first 40-minute race after early race leader Craig Baird and rival Fabian Coulthard suffered late race issues dropping them back down the order.
After setting the track record during the circuit unveiling in Easter, five-time Australian Carrera Cup champion Baird was considered one of the early favourites for victory in the two final races – and after a titanic battle with fellow New Zealander Coulthard in qualifying which saw the pair battling for supremacy – he just drove away from the field off the start.
With Tony Quinn holding the rest of the field at bay, Baird made his compulsory stop ahead of the chasing pack, with team-mate Klark Quinn emerging just ahead of Salmon. Two Safety Car periods impacted the final result, but more dramatically, tyre deflations for Klark Quinn and Coulthard as a result of debris on the circuit slowed both drivers in the dying stages allowing Salmon to charge through for the win.
Coulthard held on for second, but stopped shortly after crossing the line with a flat left rear, whilst Neil Crompton completed an almost perfect return to top flight competition with a podium after hunting down Klark Quinn in the dying stages of the race.
QUALIFYING
Sadly for M Motorsport’s Justin McMillan, he became Highland’s first victim, the Lamborghini pilot caught off line early in practice two on the exit of turn four, the gorgeous GB Galvanizing Gallardo firing across the circuit and into the wall at the base of the Pirelli bridge.
Damage was significant, ultimately forcing McMillan’s retirement, frustrating for the Victorian team after co-driver Dale Wood had set the fastest time in the opening session.
Down to 19 cars for qualifying, the early pace was set by Baird, before Coulthard returned fire in Tony Quinn’s Aston. As the session wound down, both Baird and Coulthard continued to circulate, in the process dropping the benchmark time from the 36s, to the 35s and ultimately the 34s as they continued to pushed the envelope. Track temperature too was starting to come into play, with it rising more than eight degrees across the 40-minute session.
In the end they used green tyres to further lower the mark, Coulthard holding it briefly at a 1:34.47 before Baird regrouped and fired back with a best of 1:34.21 and pole.
“We probably did more laps than either one of us wanted to,” Coulthard admitted, “and in the end I basically ran out of fuel, so that was that. It was a good lap by Craig, we’ll just try and return the favour in the race.”
“How good was that!” Tony Quinn beamed afterwards. “The boys really put in a big effort, and to be more than seven seconds faster than Bairdo’s time from Easter was incredible..”
It was an impressive effort too by local V8 SuperTourer stars Andrew Waite and Simon Evans, the pair starting from the third row in their maiden drive in the Aston Martin DBRS9, a strong recovery from practice where they suffered from a string of offs and an ongoing electrical issue to be classified the fastest Trophy class car.
Qualifying wasn’t without it’s problems, Jan Jinadasa and Andrew Taplin making contact on the run through the chicane leading onto the Pirelli bridge. Jinadasa ran in deep under brakes and as he regrouped to rejoin the racing line he clipped Taplin’s Ferrari sending him into the air and the path of Andrew McInnes.
The contact put Jinadasa into the gravel, and bent the right rear of the Ferrari, forcing them both out of the session. Fortunately for McInnes he found a gap that was ten millimetres wider than the Equity-One R8, and he scraped through unscathed, the Victorian clearly impressed with his efforts, the race cam footage showing him punching the air..
And in the GT Challenge battle, it was David Russell in Brendan Cook’s Porsche 997 Cup car who set the fastest time, with Ben Foessel and Aaron Zerefos in Indiran Padayachee’s Cup Car not too far behind, whilst in the battle for GT4 honours, Jack Perkins topped the time sheets in Mark Griffith’s Ginetta, the duo clear of rival Michael Hovey and the consistent Tony Martin who was still coming to grips with the testing 4.5-kilometre circuit.
RACE ONE (40-minutes)
Craig Baird and Tony Quinn had a drag race down to the turn one ‘bus stop’ chicane off the start, with Baird taking the advantage. He immediately pulled out a big lead, with Tony Quinn holding John Bowe, Greg Murphy, Liam Talbot and Andrew Waite at bay.
Baird was quickly down into the 35s and extending his lead with every lap, whilst the freight-train behind him continued to circulate consistently nose-to-tail, although it was clear they were all keen to get on and limit the advantage Baird would carry to the compulsory stop.
Despite immense pressure from a fast starting John Bowe, Tony Quinn retained second all the way to the pit stop, with Bowe coming under increasing pressure from Murphy and an impressive Liam Talbot.
Brendan Cook was the first casualty of the race, a wide run onto the front start line sweeper saw him clip the outside wall as he crossed the line to start lap seven, breaking the upright and damaging the left front corner forcing him to pull off into the infield.
“I was a little wider than I wanted to be, but the car jumped a little left – I may have hit some debris or rubber or something and the car hit the wall. I’m really disappointed because it had been running faultlessly. That’s me out of the championship race now, it’s all down to Ben [Foessel].”
As race control pondered bringing out the safety car, the Clark Procter/Steve Ross Mosler slowed dramatically with oil smoke emanating from the rear of the car. The slowly rolled towards pit entry, and stopped on the run into the pit lane.
As the Compulsory Pit Stop [CPS] window opened Michael Hovey dived into the pits followed by a number of Challenge cars, and by mid-race, Baird entered pit lane followed soon after by Tony Quinn, Bowe, Murphy and Talbot.
Baird’s lead at this point was up to more than 18 seconds, but with a stop of 86 seconds ahead of him (as a result of the driver gradings for both Klark Quinn and Baird), Salmon was in the box seat, he and the ungraded Talbot stopping for 26 seconds less, the Porsche and the Audi rejoining nose to tail, just as the Safety Car was called to recover the stranded Brendan Cook.
With the order shuffled thanks to some cars having made their CPS, and others in the process of doing so, the field lost its leader for a short period, before the cars between the Safety Car and the Klark Quinn Porsche were sent around to the tail of the field.
Quinn charged away off the restart, with Salmon holding onto second despite immense pressure from the charging Coulthard.
As the field settled back into a rhythm, Michael Hovey suffered an oil fire on the run down to turn three, the Ginetta pilot quickly pulling to the infield and setting off his fire bomb.
The Safety Car was immediately called with fire marshalls quickly on the scene, but with the fire out, Hovey’s car was pulled to safety, an investigation revealing a gearbox oil plug coming loose which started the fire – fortunately for the GT4 title contender the engine fired straight away once it was back in the pit garage, but with valuable points lost to rival Mark Griffith, he will need a minor miracle in race two to claim the title.
Whilst the field circulated behind the Safety Car, more dramas unfolded, many of which didn’t become evident until the final few laps. Pulling in with about seven minutes to go, the pace of both race leader Klark Quinn and Fabian Coulthard in third place dropped dramatically, some six to eight seconds a lap as both battled deflating tyres.
For Audi’s Rod Salmon though there were no such problems, and he quickly found a way past Klark Quinn for the lead, as Coulthard too looked for a way past the points leader.
Neil Crompton – who was having his first competitive race in more than 18 months – was getting quicker with every lap behind the wheel of the Highlands McLaren, and he too moved forward, taking Quinn on the final lap to be third across the line.
With another lap, that would have been second as Coulthard rolled to a stop half way around the cool down lap with a completely flat left rear, both Quinn cars – and the Corvette of Ivan Capelli found to have picked up carbon fibre shards during the second Safety Car period.
The reaction from the Melbourne Performance Centre team as Salmon crossed the line was a sight in itself, the team realising the enormity of winning not just their first race of the season, but the first ever race on the Highlands circuit.
“That’s fantastic,” Rod Salmon beamed afterwards. “That has to be one of the best wins of my career.”
For team-mate Liam Talbot, he admitted that the enormity of the result still hadn’t hit him.
“I had no trouble sticking with the Aston, the Ferrari and the McLaren off the start, in fact they were holding me up,” he admitted. “I didn’t realise until after I got out of the car that it was Greg Murphy in front of me, and he was really starting to struggle as the laps wore on. There were a few times that I had the chance to put my nose down the inside, but there’s still a long way to go this weekend and I didn’t want to risk anything.
“As it was we were right where we needed to be in the end, and Rod drove brilliantly, I still can’t believe it..!”
Tony Quinn and Fabian Coulthard were an impressive second, Coulthard using every trick in the book to manage the deflating rear tyre, Tony Quinn admitting afterwards that he’d loved every lap of the race, both behind the wheel and watching from pit lane.
“How good was that,” he laughed. “What a great result for the first ever event at Highlands, and what a race. I managed to keep Bowey at bay up until the stop, although he let me know he was there a couple of times. Watching Fabian manage the tyre and Crompton work his way forward, that was great..!”
For Crompton and Murphy, their third place in the gorgeous but relatively untested McLaren was just reward for a consistent run, Crompton admitting that it was all starting to come back to him with each passing lap.
“The McLaren is fantastic to drive,” he said. “The speed is all within me, and all about remembering the things I’d learnt from the past. It’s coming back to me, and I’m becoming more relaxed – everything is just coming comfortably now, so the speed will start to come with it. I’m looking forward to race two and seeing what Murph and I can do.”
Whilst quick early, the Steve McLaughlan Viper was out after only eight laps, a crown wheel failure in the differential bringing the big V10 to a stop on the run under the Pirelli bridge.
“Fortunately that’s one of the spares we have with us, so we’ll be back in action again tomorrow,” he confirmed post-race.
That left the Waite/Evans Aston Martin comfortably in front in the Trophy Class, the local boys improving with every lap to take a well deserved sixth place finish at the conclusion of the 40-minute race, not far off the tail of Peter Edwards in the Il Bello Rosso Ferrari.
Ben Foessel and Michael Almond prevailed in the Challenge Class, in the process sealing the championship victory for Foessel, who was unable to hide his delight.. “How good’s that,” he beamed as he wandered the paddock pondering by the enormity of the result..
Mark Griffith and Jack Perkins claimed the win in GT4, although their strong early lead almost completely evaporated in the dying stages, along with their fuel supply, the Ginetta rolling round the final lap at not much above walking pace.
“We put a larger fuel tank in for the 101 on Sunday, but it appears that despite having plenty of fuel in reserve, it wasn’t being picked up, so we were all but out a couple of laps from home,” Griffith explained afterwards.
With three of the four titles now sealed, and one more 40-minute ‘sprint’ race scheduled for Saturday ahead of the invitational ‘Highlands 101’ on Sunday, there’s still a lot to play for at Highlands Motorsport Park, and judging by the action in race one, there’s still plenty more to come!!