Simonsen, Elsegood Survive Weather Chaos For Coopers Ute 1-2 On Gold Coast

SURFERS PARADISE – Ford Falcon XR8 drivers Allan Simonsen and Jack Elsegood splashed through a chaotic first heat of the Yokohama V8 Utes Championship seventh round to claim a Coopers Pale Ale team 1-2 today.

The pair was lucky to survive as a string of accidents resulting from heavy rain reduced the event to barely one lap under racing conditions on the Lexmark Indy 300 street circuit.

After the race, 11 utes were taken off-track to be repaired for tomorrow's second heat, a seven-lap, reverse-grid night race.

Today's result put a dramatic twist on the chase for the championship.

Drivers who came to grief included Melbourne's Marcus Zukanovic, who had arrived on the Gold Coast running second in the pointscore to defending champion Damien White.

Instead of collecting points to narrow the 44-point gap to White, Zukanovic prematurely ended his race against the pit straight wall on lap five after his Falcon lost grip on the flooded track.

Brendon Tucker (Ford) suffered the same fate next time around. Officials immediately red-flagged the race and declared the result according to the order at the end of lap five. The race had been scheduled to run to seven laps.

White also crashed on the same lap as Tucker, but was classified as a finisher, in 10th place.

However, he said his car had only a 30 percent chance of being repaired tomorrow.

"It's quite bad. Also, I have bruised shins from hitting the dashboard although I'll be OK as long as the car is ready," White said.

Kim Jane was classified third and the first Holden driver, ahead of pole position winner Rod Wilson (Holden).

"Terrifying is the only word to describe the conditions. There was no grip and no vision," Wilson said.

His Kanga Loaders team faces a long night tonight to repair the Holdens of Chris Pither and Gavin Bullas, which were eliminated in a heavy crash at the start.

The crash brought out the safety car before the field had even completed the first lap. Three laps followed at low speed and then barely one race lap before the event was stopped.

Seven drivers were classified as non-finishers.

RESULTS

Race 1 (5 laps)
1. Allan Simonsen (Vic.) Coopers Pale Ale Ford Falcon XR8
2. Jack Elsegood (NSW) Coopers Pale Ale Ford
3. Kim Jane (Vic.) Melbourne's Cheapest Cars Holden SS
4. Rod Wilson (Vic.) Kanga Loaders Holden
5. James Brock (Vic.) Revetec/Armorall Holden
6. Gary Baxter (SA) Sage Automation Holden
7. Ryal Harris DBA Holden
8. Luke May Herrod Motorsport Ford
9. James Moffat (Vic.) Trend Windows Ford
10. Damien White (NSW) IMG Ford
Fastest lap – Simonsen, 2 min. 48.53 sec.

Qualifying
1. Rod Wilson 2 min. 17.41 sec.
2. Marcus Zukanovic (Vic.) Fujitsu Ford 2:17.52
3. Allan Simonsen 2:17.57
4. Jack Elsegood 2:18.03
5. Kim Jane 2:18.05
6. Gary Baxter 2:18.08
7. Damien White 2:18.28
8. James Moffat 2:18.32
9. James Brock 2:18.58
10. Dave Griffin (NSW) Pedigree Ford 2:18.66

Weekend timetable
Friday
8 pm Race 2 (7 laps, reverse grid)

Saturday
11.30 am Race 3 (6 laps)
12 midday Media conference (media centre)

Surfers Paradise lap records
Race – Warren Luff (Ford Falcon XR8) 2 min. 18.65 sec. (24/10/03)
Qualifying – Luff 2:18.92 (23/10/03)

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