Photo by: John Maricic
Holdsworth Leaves The Clipsal 500 Sixth After Championship Dream Start
IRWIN Racing’s Lee Holdsworth is well entrenched in the championship top 10 after a dream start to the V8 Supercars season.
Holdsworth finished the weekend in outright sixth place after two impressive race performances.
In Adelaide for the Clipsal 500, it was Holdsworth’s first weekend away with his team, and arrived hoping to make the top 10 in both races.
He exceeded his expectations on Saturday, finishing the first leg of the Clipsal 500 in fifth place, racing strongly to be one of the standout drivers.
Qualifying for today’s race in seventh place, Holdsworth had the speed to push for another top five, but a broken rear shock meant that he had to nurse his IRWIN Falcon over the last half of the race.
Despite the damage to the car he was able to easily defend his position and earned some excellent championship points.
Leaving the Clipsal 500 paced sixth in the championship, Holdsworth is looking forward to the second event in Tasmania, but not before a stop off at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
What IRWIN Racing’s Lee Holdsworth had to say:
“I couldn't ask for a better first weekend with IRWIN Racing. The car was great but we ruined a rear shock probably mid-way through the race, so it was bouncing around off the kerbs like a pogo stick. It was a handle to drive after that so I was really pleased with eighth today. We are going away from the Clipsal sixth in the championship so it’s not a bad start to the year and a good start with IRWIN Racing. It turned out that Saturday was a fantastic day; I had a really good race car and was able to fight my way through. Today I had a really good car at the start. We’ll go to the next round and we’ll build on it again - it can only get better from here.”
What IRWIN Racing’s engineer Brad Wischusen had to say:
"That was a pretty good start to the season. Our start on Friday wasn’t ideal, we wanted to qualify higher but we definitely made ground on Friday night with the car set up and Lee drove the IRWIN Ford really strongly on Saturday to set up a good result. We probably could have been a lot higher today, we had a mechanical issue mid-race onwards, but I’m definitely pleased to come home with an eighth place and a top 10 in the championship.”
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Holdsworth, Coulthard both return to WAU
Lowndes, Schenken join Supercars Hall of Fame
Why Holdsworth retired from Supercars
WRC Croatia: Neuville sets the pace to lead title rival Evans
Sainz will have to "survive with what we have" in China F1 sprint
FIA still chasing answers over bizarre Shanghai F1 grass fires
How a Shanghai to Sheffield journey paved the way for China’s F1 hero
Motorsport.com writers' most memorable moments of 2022
Why Courtney and Tickford are a dream match
How taming his temper shaped Supercars' slow-burn star
Why replacing Supercars' GOAT with a teenager is worth the risk for T8
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments