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Race report

Not the return to Sydney Motorsport Park IRWIN racing had aimed for

Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing

Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing

John Maricic

IRWIN Racing's Lee Holdsworth is now switching his focus to the endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, after a tough weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.

After finishing 26th in saturday's race, Holdsworth brought the IRWIN Ford home in 21st today, after fighting back from starting 24th and a pitlane penalty.

Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing
Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing

Photo by: John Maricic

The IRWIN Racing crew made significant set-up changes to the Ford for qualifying, but it didn't bring the desired result.

Into the race and Holdsworth found his rhythm quickly and climbed into the high teens.

Holdsworth ran the opening two stints of the 200km race on the harder Dunlop race tyres, with the aim to make the most of softer rubber on the run to the chequered flag. However, Holdsworth exceeded the 40km/h pitlane speed limit, and was forced serve a drive-through penalty.

He put his down and moved from 25th to pass four moire cars including Steve Owen on the final lap.

Despite the disappointing weekend, Holdsworth has maintained his position in the top-10 of the championship in ninth.

The IRWIN Racing team will now switch to endurance racing mode with the Sandown 500 on 14-16 September. Craig Baird will join Holdsworth in a return to Sandown for 500km race for the first time since 2007.

What IRWIN Racing’s Lee Holdsworth had to say: "We knew we needed to do something pretty dramatic from what we were doing yesterday to find some speed. So we tried going to the other extreme from what we had yesterday in qualifying and it obviously didn't work."

"We still need to find some improvement in qualifying because in the race we actually had half a decent car. Today we cost ourselves a bit of time in the pit stop and also the drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane. So if we can qualify better I think we can race up there in the top five or six. That's the hardest thing at the moment, qualifying."

Source: IRWIN Racing

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