Wilson Security Racing headed to Adelaide Street Circuit for the Clipsal 500. After having widened their interests in motorsport quite dramatically, WSR fans were going to be in for an action packed race meeting with WSR sponsorship across 4 different categories and 5 cars. In addition to the main naming rights sponsorship of Tim Slade in car #47 in the V8 Supercar Championship, WSR have sponsorship with David Wall, the reigning champion in car #1, in the Australian GT Championship and also Charlie Kovacs in the V8 Utes in car #69, a very experienced competitor in the series. As recently announced WSR, in partnership with the McGrath Foundation, are running Leanne Tander in car #11, an XA GT, in the Touring Car Masters in addition to their already existing sponsorship of John Bowe in car #18. All up, a very busy weekend is sure to follow.

Thursday 11 March:

V8 Supercars - The V8’s took a back seat today to make way for the support categories that completed practice and qualifying during day 1 of the event.

Touring Car Masters - LT and JB both took to the circuit for practice which was prematurely ended for Leanne when an electrical issue caused a misfire and ultimately caused the car to stop on the circuit during the session. Shortly after JB made a very rare error and speared off into the grass and tyre wall on the final turn and was towed back to the pits. Both cars were repaired by mid afternoons qualifying which saw Leanne in car #11in 20th with a 1:37:67 and JB on pole with a 1:31:46.

John Bowe: “unfortunately in practice I was trying too hard and crashed the car, severely re arranging the front of the Mustang and my bank account.”

Australian GT - David Wall had two practice sessions the combined results putting David as 2nd fastest with a time of 1:24:86, less than half a second off the fastest on the track being Koundouros.

V8 Utes - Charlie Kovacs Snr and Jnr both shared some time behind the wheel of the #69 car today in practice and qualifying. Jnr was a little over 3 seconds off pole compared with Snr who put down a 1:41:22 which was less than 3 seconds off the pole time of 1:38:27 taken out by Seiders/Barrett. Combined qualifying results will see Kovacs Snr and Jnr start from 19th for tomorrow’s race.

Friday 12th March:

V8 Supercars - The first practice session was for rookies and the bottom 50% which included Slade who is placed 16th in the Championship. Slade finished the session placed 9th out of 15 cars with a time in the low 1:26’s. The second session was run on new tyres with Slade knocking his P1 time down by over 3 seconds. The final session saw Slade on a flyer in the dying moments, only to have slower moving traffic still on racing line interfere with his lap at the final turn. Believed to have cost a few tenths Slade had to settle for 10th fastest with a 1:22:15. The fastest man on the track was Whincup with a 1:21:37.

Tim Slade: “We ended up tenth overall which should have been better but I was held up by Bargwanna which was disappointing. I should have been closer to Shane if it wasn’t for what happened with Bargwanna on my last flying lap but I’m really looking forward to getting out there in qualifying tomorrow.”

Australian GT - The qualifying session was ended early after Quinn in the car #7 VIP Pet Foods entry crashed into the wall at the Senna chicane. David Wall in the #1 WSR entry finished 3rd fastest on 1:24:84, half a second behind Hackett on pole.
Race 1 saw David quickly into 2nd place and battling with the leader Twig in car #18. After a number of looks down the inside a move at turn 9 on the 2nd last lap put David into the lead. Taking the win gave David his first win for the season and Wilson Security Racing their first win ever in motorsport after 3 years of involvement.

David Wall: “Qualifying was a bit of a shambles with 2 red flags in 20 minutes so we didn’t really get the opportunity to show our true potential. We were a little bit boxed in on the start for race 1 but we managed to get by them one by one to eventually take the win.”

Touring Car Masters - Race 1 of the series saw JB starting from pole position and LT from back in 20th. JB made a good start maintaining 1st place but would trade places a couple of times with the 2nd car driven by Bullas until the number #18 car of JB’s split a power steering hose around lap 5 and dropped back through the field to finish 17th. LT made a good start and had made up two places by the end of the first lap. Driving consistently in the number #11 car, LT continued to move forward through the field to finish the race in 15th, an overall gain of 5 places.

John Bowe: “Unfortunately a power steering line which had been stretched in the previous shunt failed making the car virtually impossible to drive, sending me plummeting down through the field.”

V8 Utes - Race 1 for the championship had Charlie Kovacs Jnr behind the wheel in what proved to be a very interesting race with a number of incidents. Managing to stay clear of all the carnage, Kovacs Jnr drove virtually a faultless race to come from a starting position of 19 and to finish the race in 14th place.

Saturday 13th March:

Touring Car Masters - Race 2 saw Leanne start back in 15th and JB further back in 17th after power steering issues the previous day. JB made a great start and was gaining a couple of places a lap to be up in 3rd by two thirds race distance. A battle with Tilley in car #28 that continued for a couple of laps saw Bowe eventually make a move down the outside at turn 9 stick to take second place. JB, clearly with a fast car, set the lap record during the race of 1:31:52.

Unfortunately LT was not so lucky on the start stalling the car and dropping back to 24th. A very determined effort saw her make her way back up through the field to 14th only to have an engine failure and find her back in 24th at race end.

Leanne Tander: “Being the first round of the season and the first official race outing for the car we knew there would be a few little issues to work through. The good news is that we managed to iron out these issues and the car performed a lot better. Unfortunately a faulty engine part meant that we didn’t finish the 2nd race and were unable to compete in the third. We are now looking ahead to Winton for what should be another exciting round in the series.”

V8 Supercars - Qualifying saw Tim Slade improve his times dramatically with a best time of 1:22:30 which placed him 19th and less than 1 second off the fastest car on the track. Unfortunately Tim’s fastest time was disallowed due to curb hopping and his next best time of 22:41 would place him 21st. Final qualifying after the shootout was:

1, Whincup 1:21:58
2. Tander 1:21:78
3. Winterbottom 1:21:83
4. Dumbrell 1:22:15
5. J.Richards 1:22:16
6. Coulthard 1:22:18
7. Lowndes 1:22:23
8. Holdsworth 1:22:34
9. Van Gisbergen 1:22:39
10. D Alberto 1:22:63
21st Slade 1:22:41
23rd A.Davison 1:22:72

The first race for the weekend and race 5 of the championship got off to a clean start with very little movement in positions during the first lap. Tim started from position 21 and gained one place to be 20th by the completion of the first lap. Driving well and staying out of trouble, Tim had the #47 car up into14th when disaster struck on lap 13, running wide and into the wall at the notorious turn 8 before having to abandon the damaged car which was left stranded up the escape road at turn 9. A very disappointed Tim Slade returned to the garage sometime later, thankfully not injured. The damage to the car was assessed at the end of the race when it was finally returned to the garage and the crew worked tirelessly on the car to the wee hours of the morning to have it ready for the race the next day.

Tim Slade: “Obviously I am extremely disappointed with what happened in the race. We had good pace at the race start and I just simply made a mistake. “This place is extremely unforgiving if you do make an error, I turned in a little bit too wide and got loose on the dirty stuff at Turn 8 and that was it for me in the race. “You quickly run out of road when you go sideways into Turn 8 so unfortunately due to my error tonight the boys have a bit of work to do. “I am sorry for the team, they prepared a great race car for me so tomorrow I will be looking to make it up to them.”

Final results for the race were:

1. Tander
2. Courtney
3. Holdsworth
4. Whincup
5. Dumbrell
6. Bright
7. Coulthard
8. Caruso
9. W. Davison
10. Ingall
11th - A. Davison
22nd - Van Gisbergen
DNF - Tim Slade

V8 Utes - Charlie Kovacs Snr was behind the wheel for today’s race. Starting from 19th, Charlie was lucky to not be involved in any of the many race incidents and finished a very respectable 10th place.

Australian GT - David Wall started today’s race from pole and never looked liked losing the number one position. Wall established a one second lead from 2nd place Twigg by the end of the first lap and although Twigg managed to get this as low as half a second he never looked like passing Wall on the circuit. His runaway victory in race 2 gives Wall two wins from 2 races and provides WSR with their second race win.

David Wall: “Race 2 I had the lead right from the start and although we were being pushed by Twigg and he was getting closer and closer, even without his mechanical failure I think we could have held him out to the end of the race.”

Sunday 14th March:

Touring Car Masters - Race 3 of the championship and starting positions are based on the aggregate of the previous two results. Leanne was a non starter after an engine failure on Saturday put an end to her weekend. JB started from 7th place and was quick to make his mark on the field on the tail of Bullas, the 3rd place runner, by lap 4. A battle ensued between the two drivers with JB struggling to finish the job as the #18 Boss Mustang, although clearly better under brakes and cornering, didn’t have the straight line speed of Bullas. The last lap saw the front runners on the tail of some slower traffic and JB capitalised on the opportunity and moved up into 3rd. Bullas clearly wasn’t going to give up third that easy but was unable to capitalise on a move down the outside around turns 8 and 9 and had to settle for 3rd place.

John Bowe: “The reaction from fans to me racing a Ford again was very positive. Although it wasn’t entirely the start I was after at least I have a fast car on my hands.”

Final results have Miedecke in 1st place on 168 points, Richards in 2nd place on 164 points and Bullas in 3rd place on 150 points. JB is placed 6th on 123 points and LT on 17 points.

V8 Supercars - Qualifying was another all in 20 minute session. Tim improved his times throughout the entire session but at the end of it all had to be content with 23rd on a 1:22:30.

Final results for the session were:

1. Tander 1:20:95
2. Whincup 1:21:05
3. Winterbottom 1:21:16
4. Courtney 1:21:25
5. Johnson 1:21:26
6. Caruso 1:21:44
7. R. Kelly 1:21:46
8. W. Davison 1:21:49
9. Van Gisbergen 1:21:54
10. D’Alberto 1:21:59
20th Alex Davison 1:22:08
23rd Tim Slade 1:22:30

Race 6 of the championship and the second race for the V8’s over the Clipsal weekend proved to be far more successful for WSR and driver Tim Slade. Staring from 23rd, Slade made a clean start and maintained his track position well. A tag in the rear from Lowndes in car #888 at the final turn on lap 43 saw car #49 into the grass losing a few positions. Race control was quick to order Lowndes to redress the situation, dropping back in behind Slade.
Car #47’s stops were completed on laps 25 and 52 with the crew performing extremely well putting Tim back on the track in 19th place.

A safety car on lap 56, caused by the ripple strip/curb breaking up at turn 8, bunched up the field and Tim was well placed in 15th. A short period of light rain shortly after made the track really slippery and Tim, who was yet to finish a race at Clipsal, decided to err on the side of caution and unfortunately lost a few positions and would eventually finish 17th and break the drought at Clipsal.

Tim Slade: “I am happy I finished one! It’s good to get that off my back. “It was an interesting race, there was only one DNF so it was very different to yesterdays. I lost a couple of positions when Lowdnes hit me and turned me around. He readdressed that but it didn’t really serve its purpose that good because I still lost two or three positions out of it. “When it started to rain I played it on the cautious side, I didn’t want to be the first one in the wall so I got hung out to dry there a bit and lost a couple of spots. “We had good car speed especially in the middle stint, we just made it home with fuel like Shane [van Gisbergen] so the guys did a great job with the strategy.”

Final placings were:

1. Tander
2. Courtney
3. Winterbottom
4. Van Gisbergen
5. Dumbrell
6. R. Kelly
7. D’Alberto
8. Johnson
9. J. Richards
10. Caruso
17th Tim Slade
23rd Alex Davison

Championship Standings:

1. Jamie Whincup 771
2. Mark Winterbottom 714
3. James Courtney 696
4. Shane Van Gisbergen 630
5. Lee Holdsworth 573
6. Craig Lowndes 552
7. Rick Kelly 530
8. Paul Dumbrell 489
9. Michael Caruso 462
10. Steven Johnson 455
18th Alex Davison 321
22nd Tim Slade 276

Team Championship:

1. Team Vodafone 1323
2. Jim Beam Racing 1161
3. Fujitsu/GRM 1050
4. Ford Performance Racing 951
5. Stone Brothers Racing 951
15th WSR 276

V8 Utes - Kovacs Snr in the WSR car #69 started the race from 9th position based on their aggregate points from the previous 2 races. Car #69 successfully moved through the field up to 7th before the first safety car on lap 3. The safety car period lasted a number of laps and ran into the compulsory pit stop window between laps 4 and 7. All cars were required to stop for 60 seconds. The driver change to Kovaks Jnr was done in 30 seconds but whilst waiting for the 60 seconds to elapse car #69 got boxed in by all the other cars in pit lane, losing an additional 15 seconds and 3 places as they tried to re enter the fast lane. Eventually fighting their way back to 9th, another safety car period would see them hold this position until the end of the race.

Championship standings have David Seiders in 1st place on 71 points, Grant Johnson in 2nd place on 66 points, Jack Elsegood in 3rd place on 59 points and our very own Charlie Kovacs in 15th on 37 points.

Aust GT - David again started from pole position but Crick in his big V10 simply out squirted him into the first corner. Dropping back to 2nd place David battled it out with Crick in car #55 for a number of laps. A move down the inside at turn 4 on lap 7 would see David take the lead and the race win giving him a perfect three from 3 for the weekend.

David Wall: “Having new sponsor Wilson Security on board this year, along with loyal sponsors Shannons, Mount Aqua and Payce, we were determined to hit the ground running. It was fantastic to pick up where we left off last year showing that we really deserve the #1 on the side of the car.”

Championship standings have David Wall 1st on 114 points, Crick 2nd on 103 points and Hackett 3rd on 98 points.