Economy Bites Fourth Round Entry

After a huge entry at the opening two rounds of the Kumho Tyres Australian Saloon Car Series where the category was the most popular on the regular Shannons Nationals program, the entry has fallen to just nine for round four this weekend at Winton Raceway. The economic recession had hit the Mallala entry savagely where ten cars fronted after a mighty 51 Fords and Holdens at Bathurst and an impressive 38 at Phillip Island.

“Unfortunately motor racing can’t be high on your priority list when there are more important things to take care of . . . and a lot of our drivers have to consider that,” admitted series administrator Les Morrall. “Put simply they haven’t got the money to go motor racing at the moment but I am confident things will pick up.

“For the Queensland round (at Morgan Park in early August) we will have near to 30 cars as it will also be a local state round. Then Oran Park which will be our last ever race meeting there, will surely attract around 25 cars while Sandown always does well because its our last round for the year,” he added.

In the meantime, with three round wins and seven victories from eight race starts, 2009 series pacesetter Shawn Jamieson will be almost out of touch of getting beating for the series honours provided he does well this weekend in the Morphett Vale Garage Holden Commodore VT.

Like Mallala his major opposition will come from another Holden but this time it’s likely to be the Brice Australia entry of fellow South Australian John Goodacre who missed the last round. Fellow Holden drivers in Matt Davidson (SA) and Victorian Tim Rowse should not be too far off the pace earlier while Paul Pennisi in the Woodstock entry is on more familiar ground in the rural north of his home state Victoria.

Ford numbers appear to be at their lowest ever. Just four Falcon AU’s are running with Dan Hodge, ex Development Series regular Tony Evangelou and New South Wales’ Mark Primmer joining the ever reliable Geoff Brown in the v8touringcars.com.au Ford. Brown crash heavily at the second round and built a new and better car for Mallala. “It was two seconds faster there – straight out of the box,” he gleamed.
 

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