Irwin Racing Gold Coast practice report

Irwin Racing 10Th On Opening Day Of The Gold Coast 600

Alex Davison, #4 Irwin Racing

Photo by: Chris Von Wieldt

IRWIN Racing has made a pleasing start to the ArmorAll Gold Coast 600 in Queensland, finishing 10th for the day.

There were four sessions, two marked for the international co-driver, and in the sessions that mattered Alex Davison and Marc Lieb both finished inside the top 10.

Davison drove in the first and final session, posting the 10th fastest time, and set up the IRWIN Tools Ford in preparation for qualifying tomorrow, while Lieb drove in the middle two sessions.

Today was the first time that Lieb has raced a V8 Supercar and was the first time he has visited the Surfers Paradise street circuit.

Lieb started slowly, getting used to the intricacies of the circuit, but then improved his first session time by more than 1.5 seconds to place eighth in his final session of the day.

The focus now turns to Saturday’s qualifying session which starts at 9.35am, followed by the top 10 Shootout at 10.50am and the first of two 300km races at 1.40pm (Qld Time).

What IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison had to say:

“Overall today hasn’t been too bad for IRWIN Racing. I would have liked to have gone quicker in the last run but we got held up in traffic. I think the pace was in the car and that we could have finished higher, but I won’t complain too much, to be in the top 10 after four sessions is a good start. We've been pretty competitive all day, Marc (Lieb) is getting up to speed and is doing really well, we'll see what tomorrow brings. I feel good about tomorrow, it’s very competitive and we need to find a little more speed but we're in the ball park. We won’t be doing any major changes, put it that way. Qualifying is always very competitive, so we'll see what happens when the chequered flag drops.”

What IRWIN Racing’s Marc Lieb had to say:

“The track is difficult you know, a little bit more difficult than I was expecting. There were some tricky corners with quite a lot of bumps. You can see the bumps on the on-board (vision), but it is a lot bumpier than it looks. I need some more time in the car, the last session was very helpful, I got good data and good comparisons to other people in the team. I was working slowly out there, trying not to be too hard or too aggressive. I don’t want to touch the wall. I’m getting there slowly but I am getting there. I was taking it quite easy in the first practice session, trying to get my head around the circuit. The second session was a lot better. I’d like one more session, but unfortunately that will be the race. I should be OK though, I need to get my head around a few corners, but I like it, it’s a good challenge, it should be good.”