The Bottle-O Racing Team made it through this afternoon's 200km race despite battling reduced performance with the #55 Bottle-O Falcon. Dumbrell pushed past the challenges thrown his way to reach a race finish in 23rd.
Trouble started early for Dumbrell with the car behind the pace in the morning's qualifying session. The car had the same set-up that launched the team into yesterday's Shootout, but with different wind conditions the car's fastest lap was marginally slower. The small variance had big implications for the car's starting position and placed the car 18th on the grid for the start of the race.
Things went from bad to worse on the opening lap of the race when the car became tangled in midfield, taking on damage as another car made contact. Dumbrell dropped back to the rear of the field, beaten but not out. With 68 laps left in the race it was much too early to call it a day and Dumbrell settled in for a long fight.
The team brought the car into the pits on lap 12 to assess the damage, making swift adjustments. Dumbrell returned to the field a lap down, tailing the field but making steady progress as the race continued.
By lap 27 Dumbrell had caught up with the rest of the field and moved up to 25th position. A further gain was made difficult as the car's tyres began to degrade. Dumbrell once again found himself slipping back through the field with his hard work being undone.
The team performed their second pitstop on lap 43, topping up fuel and changing to soft tyres. Dumbrell instantly felt the difference of the soft tyres and set to work making up ground. He clocked his fastest lap of the race on lap 45 with a time of 1:10.3443 - A quicker lap than his morning qualifying lap!
In the remaining laps of the race Dumbrell pushed every advantage, using the car's renewed performance to claw back lost ground. He was able to stake a hold on 23rd position by the close of the race. The result was far from the top ten, but still held its own sense of achievement considering the challenge the team faced in overcoming such a huge setback.
The V8 Supercar championship Series continues from July 7th at Townsville.
Copyright 2010 Rod Nash Racing
