Reindler and Gilmour take qualifying spoils in Opes Prime National Class
Story By: F3 Media Release Date: 2/2/2008 at 3:32:49 PM
Australian Formula 3’s two Chris’, Reindler and Gilmour have taken class pole in race one and two respectively for tomorrow’s Opes Prime National Class races at Eastern Creek.
Chris Reindler may count himself lucky, because although he took class pole for tomorrow’s first race he crashed soon afterwards in the first qualifying session, causing drama in his pits to get the TanderSport Dallara F304 Opel Spiess ready for the second session.
“Pole was great; I was driving on the limit and we obviously had enough speed to take pole,” Reindler said.
“But then I pushed too hard and spun in turn four, and backed it into the wall, which obviously wasn’t too good!
The TanderSport crew then had to rush to repair the rear of the car for the second qualifying session, and only managed to get Reindler back out on track with half of the second session remaining.
Reindler’s team hadn’t had time to work on the setup, and with little time to set a flying lap he only managed to qualify in fifth for Sunday’s second race.
Second in the first qualifying session was Opes Prime Team BRM driver Lee Farrell (Dallara F304 Opel Spiess), who said the team were just as focused on finding the right setup after engine problems in practice yesterday as they were to getting a good grid position.
“There’s still a little bit of time in the car, but I was happy enough with that session – we look strong for tomorrow,” Farrell said.
Third was Chris Gilmour (Snatchit.com.au / Dallara F304 Opel Spiess), followed by Formula 3’s two Daniels - Daniel Schulz (Astuti Motorsport / Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo) and Daniel Cotton (Piccola Scuderia / Dallara F304 Spiess Opel), with Mathew Radisich (Scud Racing / Dallara F304 Spiess Opel) rounding out the top six.
Class pole in race one was 1m26.1294, however times worsened in the second session due to rubber laid down by the A1 Grand Prix cars not agreeing with the Formula 3 Kumho tyres, making for slightly slippery conditions in perfectly dry weather.
Experienced campaigner Chris Gilmour was best prepared for the session, taking the Opes Prime National Pole for race two with a time of 1m28.66287 – over two and a half seconds off the pace compared to the first session.
“It always seems to be quicker around here in the morning, but the A1GP tyres made things pretty hard in second qualifying, but we still had the speed to take pole,” Gilmour explained.
“I picked up a lot of pace over yesterday by pushing harder myself and working on the setup,” he said.
”We had some aero problems in qualifying one, which we fixed, and then we took pole by almost half a second in the second session.”
Daniel Schulz overcame traffic problems in the first session to set the second quickest time in the Opes Prime National Class for race two.
“We feel comfortable with the car, and there are a lot of close times in the class, so there should be some good racing tomorrow,” Schulz said.
Lee Farrell backed up on his strong first session result to set the third fastest time in class, followed by Cotton, the rushed Reindler, and Radisich finished the first six in the class for race two.
In the Trophy Class, Andrew Mill took pole for both races in his Dallara F301 Spiess Opel, ahead of Justin Tate (Scud Racing / Dallara F301 Spiess Opel, while Jesse Wakeman (R-Tek F3 / Dallara F301 Spiess Opel) also held station in the two sessions to start third in class for both races.
Meanwhile, in the Kumho Tyres Australian Drivers Championship Class, Leanne Tander took pole in race one with her TanderSport Dallara F307 Mercedes Benz – which means that TanderSport cars will start from pole in both the Championship and National classes, with Opes Prime Team BRM teammates Nathan Caratti and Earl Bamber qualifying in second and third in their Dallara F307s with Mercedes Benz engines.
Pole for the second race in the Championship Class was locked out by Team BRM, with Caratti taking pole, followed by teammates Bamber and James Winslow.
Qualifying 1 - National Top 5
1. Chris Reindler 1m26.1294
2. Lee Farrell 1m26.3878
3. Chris Gilmour 1m26.4161
4. Daniel Schulz 1m27.0395
5. Daniel Cotton 1m27.2106
Championship Class: Leanne Tander 1m24.0969
Trophy Class: Andrew Mill 1m28.5049
Qualifying 2 - National Top 5
1. Chris Gilmour 1m28.66287
2. Daniel Schulz D1m29.0832
3. Lee Farrell 1m29.1383
4. Daniel Cotton 1m29.4006
5. Chris Reindler 1m30.2741
Championship Class: Nathan Carratti 1m26.3211
Trophy Class: Andrew Mill 1m30.1189
About the Opes Prime National Class
The winner of the 2008 Championship will win either $40,000 cash or the opportunity to negotiate a fully-funded drive in the 2009 Championship / Gold Star class thanks to Opes Prime, should they nominate and run the new Spiess Opel engine program.
All cars entered in the new engine program will share the fastest lap data from each session, enabling all Opes Prime National Class competitors registered to compete on a completely level playing field – leaving it down to driver and team skill.
Cars not running the Spiess Opel engine are still eligible to score points in the National Class however they are not eligible to compete for the prizes on offer.
About Opes Prime: Opes Prime specializes in providing securities lending and equity financing, trade execution, structured products, corporate advisory and asset management services to sophisticated market players, including other stockbrokers, banks, advisers, fund managers, corporations and individuals. Opes Prime has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. Additional information is available at www.opesprime.com.