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00:00Welcome to Texas in the United States of America.
00:07This is real cowboy country that's steeped in history.
00:14It's the scene of the famous Battle of the Alamo
00:19and these wide open plains have put the Lone Star State on the map.
00:24Here in Texas everything is big.
00:30Big boots, big cattle, big cars, big barbecues
00:36and very big Stetson hats.
00:42Austin is the state capital and this weekend the city is getting ready
00:46to dish up some good old southern hospitality for the V8 Supercar Championship.
00:52It's the city that's famous for keeping it weird.
00:57It's the live music capital of the world and home to the legendary Willie Nelson.
01:03It's also home to one seriously big race track.
01:08It's just the place for a few cowboys from down under to saddle up and cut loose.
01:16The team mates actually bump.
01:19That is fast.
01:20Here we go.
01:21This is contact.
01:22Oh man.
01:23That is massive.
01:24A massive crash.
01:26This is the circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the Austin 400.
01:32The V8 Supercars only on 7.
01:37Well you know there sure is a lot to love about the city of Austin.
01:41It's big and beautiful.
01:42It's different.
01:43A real mix of cultures here.
01:45It is vibrant and it's been nothing but fun for the V8 Supercar's first ever foray into North America.
01:51And then there's this place, Circuit of the Americas, about 20 minutes out of town.
01:55A $400 million first class, super fast, character filled race track.
02:00It is a venue the drivers and the fans really get into.
02:03And yesterday it was the scene of the Aussie V8's debut right here in the States.
02:08Hi everybody, I'm Matt White and welcome to day two of the Austin 400.
02:12Your early morning V8 fix direct from Texas.
02:15Well day one was a hit.
02:17We wondered if the track would suit our cars.
02:20If the fans would come.
02:21If the locals would like our style of racing.
02:24The answer is yes to all of the above.
02:26And today we've got two more qualifying sessions and two more 100km races.
02:32Alongside me as always, Mark Scaife and Neil Crompton.
02:34Boys, good to see you again.
02:35I think it's pretty fair to say that the V8's have made their mark in America
02:39at a city and a circuit that's got genuine cool factor.
02:42Hi Matt, hi everybody.
02:43You're right about that.
02:44We love the place.
02:45And the entire category arrived here in a holiday vibe.
02:48It was like the V8 Supercar Excellent Adventure.
02:51An amazing facility.
02:53Tremendous welcome from the locals.
02:55And then reality kicks in in race number 13.
02:57Busy race track, high temperatures.
02:59And it really was hard work out there.
03:01The boys were experimenting with two by two battles
03:03on the run from turn three down to turn seven.
03:06We saw a massive battle at one stage for a final position in the field.
03:09Warfare everywhere.
03:10Bit calmer in race 14.
03:12Last night I saw more tired drivers in this pit lane and pit paddock than I've seen.
03:16It was like the Clipsal 500 Scaife in terms of driver exhaustion.
03:20Jamie Wincup summed it up.
03:21He was changing his helmet vent last night to get the last skerrick of cool air into the car.
03:26The work rate here is crazy.
03:28Oh absolutely Neil.
03:29Hi everybody.
03:30It is the highest work rate of any race track we go to.
03:33In fact, of a 95 second lap, there's only 10 seconds of it that you're in a straight line.
03:3887% of the lap you're turning a corner.
03:41And 10 of the stops, so the braking stops are heavy, 10 of those stops are more than 80 kilos in terms of leg press force.
03:48So it's an amazing stat of this circuit versus where we go.
03:51Let's have a look at the highlights because it was a very, very high quality race.
03:55Bad start for Fabian Coulthard on pole position.
03:58You can see him there.
03:59He almost stalled the car.
04:01Jamie Wincup.
04:02Alternate strategy.
04:03Straight up the outside, around the mall and an unbelievable run through turn one.
04:08Look in the middle of the field here.
04:10Chaos for Scott McLaughlin, Todd Kelly.
04:12They're all involved in it.
04:13Damage for young Scott and he was out of the race.
04:16There was plenty going on.
04:17Have a look at this bump.
04:18Murrow Engel.
04:19High speed.
04:20180 kilometer an hour spin down there at turn five.
04:24Good quality battle with Lowndes.
04:26And Fabian Coulthard pushes him wide.
04:28Got a bad sportsmanship flag for that maneuver.
04:31Middle of the field.
04:33Coulthard, Davison, Webb all turning it on.
04:35There was great racing in the middle of this.
04:38And there was, because it's so wide, the ability to get two or three cars abreast is just fantastic.
04:44This is right around this big long right hander of turn 17, 18.
04:48Big dive here for Mark Winterbottom.
04:50Down the inside of Tanda.
04:51Couldn't get it stopped.
04:52Left hand front wheel locked off the road.
04:54Loses three spots.
04:55And this man, he was operating at a very, very high level.
04:59It was one of his best drives I've ever seen.
05:02Did a great job, didn't he?
05:03So there was a very small turnaround time between these races.
05:07Not really a great opportunity for the boys to celebrate or even adjust their cars.
05:11Away they went for race 14 of the 36 race championship.
05:15Two by two Red Bull action up into turn one.
05:18Lots of jostling in the mid pack, including plenty of people getting shoved wide.
05:22Look at this.
05:23Wind Cup rounds up.
05:24Craig Lowndes on the outside of turn two.
05:26Beautiful move.
05:27That's 180 kilometers an hour and drops back in on cold tires.
05:30Big lock ups.
05:32It's so hard for the drivers to sight the apex at that first turn here.
05:37We'll talk more about that as the telecast goes by.
05:40I talked about two by two action.
05:41We saw Holden Racing Team cars side by side.
05:44We saw Ford Performance Pepsi Max cars side by side.
05:47Have a look at this.
05:48That was Tanda and Courtney.
05:50And here is Davison and Winterbottom.
05:53Meantime, there was a terrific battle also going on between the Techno Autosports guys.
05:57So it was very Noah's Ark yesterday.
05:59Lots of two by two stuff going on everywhere.
06:01And look at these guys.
06:02This was the battle of the race, I thought.
06:04For position number three.
06:06Fabian Coulthard in a monumental battle with Shane Van Hisbergen.
06:10And Jonathan Webb was in this as well.
06:12And I spoke to Fab about it last night.
06:14He absolutely loved it.
06:15Each of them gave each other racing room.
06:17It was totally professional.
06:19The gears made a little mistake there in trying to do a crisscross.
06:22And he opened up a gap and immediately his teammate grabbed it and said,
06:25I'll take that.
06:26They had a great chat about it afterwards.
06:27And Larko interviewed them.
06:29Meantime, at the front of the field, another win.
06:31Fifth for 2013 for Jamie Wynn Cup.
06:34Fantastic performance.
06:36His tenth podium this year, Scaifey, in just 14 races.
06:39Red Bull Racing Australia now lead the total number of podiums.
06:42They've had 17 so far.
06:44Great race.
06:45It's incredible that one, two and three were exactly the same for both of the races.
06:49With Wynn Cup Lowndes and Fabian Coulthard hogging the podium, if you like.
06:53So the championship picture now looks like this after 14 races.
06:56The key points.
06:57Wynn Cup extends his lead over Will Davison.
06:59But Craig Lowndes closes the gap moving up towards second.
07:03And Jonathan Webb moves into the top ten after a great performance, especially in race 14.
07:08As you know boys, every second counts.
07:10Behind us, we've got the Norton and the Jack Daniels Nissan Motorsport crews getting some last-minute pick practice in.
07:16Because qualifying is coming up right after this break.
07:19And also today, we're going to show you around town.
07:21In fact, the drivers will show you around town.
07:23The boys have tackled everything from gridiron.
07:25I was there for that.
07:26It was awesome.
07:27To some burgers.
07:29Big burgers.
07:30And some baseball.
07:31Look at Lee Hultworth throwing out the first pitch downtown.
07:35A great day ahead only in America at the Austin 400.
07:58So qualifying for race 15 of the championship about to roll out here in Texas.
08:03Circuit of the Americas.
08:04All our cars lined up in pit lane.
08:11And they'll have 15 minutes to determine pole position.
08:14Same format as yesterday.
08:15Then they'll have a break.
08:16Go out for another qualifying session.
08:18And then, later on, tackle two 100-kilometer races.
08:22So let's zero in on where we are.
08:24South-east of Texas.
08:26And this track modified from the Formula One Grand Prix circuit that was used six months ago.
08:32And as Mark described, at the top of the telecast, the busiest location that we visit.
08:37Anti-clockwise, 3.68 kilometers.
08:40Only 40% of the lap is 100% throttle.
08:43Broken, as always, into three timing sectors for us to make reference to the way your favorite driver is tracking during qualifying.
08:50We're expecting to see some pretty good times out there because the temperature hasn't quite come up yet.
08:56We may see low 32s.
08:58Might even see a 31.
09:00There's the field assembled.
09:02And this $400 million facility with a top speed, 240-odd kilometers an hour.
09:07And something I didn't reference in our coverage yesterday is quite significant blustery south-to-southeasterly breeze and the run-up to turn one.
09:15And it's present again today.
09:17Yeah, it really is, Neil.
09:18You can feel it down here in Pit Lane.
09:19And, Larco, when Neil mentions $400 million spent on this circuit, you can see where they've spent it.
09:24It is a remarkable place.
09:25I mean, just the width of Pit Lane alone, it's probably five cars wide.
09:29But the spectator facilities, the grandstands here, are enormous.
09:32My favorite is the giant grandstand up over our shoulder there where you can sit up and watch all of the action down below.
09:37But it's a remarkable place.
09:39Yeah, and to bring it back down to the circuit, Barrette, it's also remarkable.
09:42I mean, you can see that feature behind us which really characterizes the circuit, that elevation.
09:46I'll show you a little more detail on that later.
09:48But you can sort of split the circuit into a couple of halves.
09:51There's this front half which flows a little more.
09:53But out the back, it is really busy.
09:55And as the boys have alluded to, with the heat and that busyness, I was really surprised how it was knocking the drivers around yesterday.
10:03Even though the races were short, when the guys got out in that interim period, they were really hurting.
10:08We should mention the crowds here too because it was a good crowd yesterday.
10:11Between 25,000 and 30,000 people came along.
10:14We expect even more today.
10:15The guys were sent for a great day of racing.
10:17Yeah, you can feel the energy too in the crowd behind Pit Lane.
10:21We've got a couple of other categories running this weekend alongside the V8.
10:25So there's plenty of local support as well as plenty of Australian support.
10:30You can see there behind the Pit Lane building, the trucks lined up.
10:34So there's lots of character already in this circuit which, as I said, was raced in Formula One six months ago.
10:41Four weeks ago MotoGP had a crack at it as well, but it still feels all shiny and brand new.
10:46It certainly does.
10:48It's a great facility.
10:50This is one of the character aspects in terms of the difference from some of the other Tilki designs.
10:57It's got this amazing sort of S-Bend slalom through from turn three right through to turn nine.
11:03And that yesterday produced some of the most high speed and wild moments we've seen for a long time, Cropper.
11:10And a lot of experimentation because, you know, what you don't know, you don't know.
11:14So going into race 13, well, I'm just going to round guys up on the outside.
11:18And then, of course, in many instances, it just funnels back down into a single file at the apex of the corner.
11:23So installation laps for a number of the teams here where they just bring everything up to temp.
11:28The references, by the way, for qualifying yesterday.
11:3145 degrees out the front.
11:35I agree.
11:36All good.
11:37Fabian Coulthard polled at race 13.
11:38He did a one minute 32.5.
11:40And Jamie Windcup poll for race 14 was a one minute 32.0.
11:44So tantalizingly close to a 31.
11:46Yeah.
11:47So basically, if you put all the best splits from sector one, two and three,
11:50where Neil was describing the track map before, the three sectors that this circuit is broken into,
11:55if you put the best splits together, they could do a late 31.
12:00A 31.84 is actually the time that the best sectors equate to.
12:05This is this section that's just so wild as they bump off that kerb and go into turn 11.
12:11We saw some big moments through practice and in qualifying yesterday.
12:14And a couple of those big moments also in the race.
12:17This section is where Garth Tanner was describing that it's really complex.
12:22It's got a lot of corners that turn back on themselves.
12:25So the apex is a long way around.
12:27The inside clipping point is a long way around the corner,
12:30which means that you've got to set the car properly, keep the car turning and keep the momentum up.
12:36This is a big, fast right-hand corner here that never finishes.
12:41It's got a right, and a right, and a right, and it's got three aspects all the way right round to turn 18.
12:48Down to this section now is the final two corners of 19 and 20.
12:52We went for a blast in the safety car when we got here.
12:55I was glad I didn't have the window down.
12:56I would have fallen out the left-hand side of the car on that.
12:59So Murrow Engel on screen at the moment.
13:01Mercedes E63 AMG Ferreros Motorsport V8.
13:05He's the fastest man so far.
13:07The opening account of 1 minute 35.7.
13:09Beautiful sounding Mercedes-Benz.
13:12Ferrari-esque in the sound of the engine.
13:14Sounds like a Ferrari sports car every time it goes by, and the fans have been loving it here.
13:18Those timing intermediates, by the way, the first one pops up between turn 4 and turn 5 when we're making timing reference,
13:26which we will shortly because the screen's starting to light up.
13:29And Intermediate 2 is just after turn 15.
13:33So we're seeing drivers.
13:35Rick Kelly, for example, has been very quick so far to Intermediate 2.
13:39And there he is on cue on screen in the Jack Daniels racing car.
13:42Ran out of fuel yesterday in that wonderful battle that he was having with Mark Winterbottom.
13:48So two top ten results.
13:50A sixth and an eighth for Rick Kelly.
13:52Two wheels on the AstroTurf on this lap.
13:54He's pressing on hard.
13:55But pretty substantial fuel consumption.
13:58There's talk, and we know that they're fractionally down in engine performance, these guys.
14:02And one of the things they've got to do to compensate for that is use more of the sucrogen ethanol E85 that's in the cars.
14:09And the prediction for the rest of the field was sort of in the order of 90, 95 odd litres.
14:14So these guys got through their 112 odd litres of fuel and it coughed at the last corner.
14:19Tough break for Rick, but very, very pleased to be in the top ten.
14:22That's right.
14:23He was sixth.
14:24So he would have finished in the top five.
14:26He was actually bordering on the top five all day in that race.
14:29His speed was very, very good.
14:30One of the things when you said about the Mercedes and the very unique engine note.
14:35We've got some really high level automotive executives here over the weekend.
14:39One of the guys is Tom Peters from General Motors, who's the director of design for Camaro and Corvette.
14:44Pretty cool to be the Corvette designer.
14:46And a legend in the automotive industry.
14:48He said to me last night, Neil, those Mercedes, why do they sound like that?
14:52And he was blown away by the noise.
14:54So it's great to have those sorts of people in line with this sport.
14:58As we watch Jonathan Webb exit turn 19.
15:02Can I put a request in for an early 1960s Corvette?
15:05If you can find me one.
15:07Larko and I would like to go for a drive.
15:09Your vintage.
15:11Yes.
15:12Jonathan Webb, 1 minute 33.4.
15:140.8 of a margin over Garth Tander, Shane Van Gisburgh in the third.
15:18Then here's Rick Kelly again, position four.
15:20Wind Cups on a quick lap to the second sector at the moment.
15:23So people are starting to get onto their new tyres.
15:26Watch Jason Bright today.
15:27They had the car on the set-up scales downstairs just before we came up.
15:33Finish everything off.
15:34They're trying to get to the bottom of their set-up problems and get the car to his liking.
15:38He's got great tyre stock today.
15:42He preserved tyres yesterday so that he could get a better car today and use them wisely.
15:47So Jason Bright's got good tyre stock and wind cut.
15:53On screen.
15:54So 0.87 is the margin wind cut to Jonathan Webb.
15:57Then Lowndes, Rick Kelly, David Wall.
16:00He's on another.
16:01Watch for Craig behind.
16:02Give him room.
16:03So Mark Dutton just making sure that Jamie is aware of his teammates.
16:08So Craig Lowndes was just behind Jamie on the road and posted a 1.33.7 to go into third.
16:15And now we know that he's going to attack this next one, which is what Scott McLaughlin is doing.
16:20Hear tyre vibration through turn 19 then from McLaughlin.
16:25Crawled under this car last night with engineer Richard Holway, who continues to be mighty impressed by this young fellow.
16:32And had a look at how the rear suspension rose joint in the lower wishbone broke on that car when it took a hit up top of the hill.
16:40Right up here in the lap 1 race 13.
16:43They've made a little design change to their car to make it a little more user friendly in the event of damage.
16:50Which will be an update for Car of the Future as one of the first incidents that Scott had when that damage was done to the car.
16:59And all the engineers throughout the industry agreed with the design change that Richard had recommended.
17:05And that's what's taken place now in terms of any corrective surgery to the lower wishbone or lower inner pick up point on the chassis of the cars.
17:14And this is the never ending right hander.
17:17So around the first part of the right, second part of the right, third part of the right, wouldn't you like to be a left hand rear tyre.
17:23Fourth part of the right is the last bit where you pull fifth gear.
17:26So that is just a long fast corner and wow is that in terms of car control one of the better corners that we've seen in our sport.
17:35So they come into that corner at 165 kilometres an hour Mark.
17:39Mid corner lower speed 150.
17:41On the exit it's 190 kilometres an hour and then they get back at 205 on the run down to turn 19.
17:47Very cool.
17:48Great to watch the cars there and see the drivers really wrestling with the attitude of the vehicle.
17:53Mark Winterbottom the leading Ford now.
17:55He slots into second after that lap with Jamie Winkup who won both races yesterday.
18:00Leads them out early here in qualifying in Austin.
18:03So this is it, the last throw for this qualifying session for race 15 of the championship.
18:14The scene is this.
18:15Jamie Winkup leads.
18:16That's Dean Fiore, the Dodo Commodore on your screens and inside the top ten.
18:22He's slotted into eighth spot.
18:24So before they all come charging back out for the final dash, I'll run you through the top ten.
18:28Winkup, Winterbottom, Webb, Coulthard, Bright, Tim Slade.
18:32Alex Premmer, Dean Fiore and Scott McLaughlin and Will Davison make up your ten.
18:37I know that Winkup's gone out on a handsome set of tyres here.
18:41So Mark Dutton's just said that everything looks good in temperature and pressure land.
18:45So go out there and have some fun.
18:47So this will be the shot that he has for pole now.
18:51And there's a whole bunch of guys out there.
18:53In fact, 26 cars are on the racetrack.
18:55So big push here for Chas Mostert.
18:57Trying to catch the car on the run to turn one.
18:59And you can see from the body language of Garth Panda's car draped in the Australian flag this weekend.
19:04Garth's not messing around either.
19:06And what they're also talking about in terms of driver input here is just the sheer aggression that's required to make lap time.
19:14Have a look there with the aggression that we saw Tanda coming onto the back straight.
19:19And Ingall's using him as a guide propo.
19:21He's coming at him.
19:22He was pretty unhappy last night.
19:24Russell Ingall had some ride height problems.
19:26And Garth has boarded the lap.
19:28Had some ride height issues with the car.
19:30And just they've not been able to get a happy balance for Russell Ingall in car number 66.
19:34Lowndes meantime has gone fast to the first sector in car.
19:38Triple 8 for Red Bull Racing Australia.
19:40Here's Shane Van Gisbergen on screen.
19:42Shane's down in 20th, but he's on the lap as well.
19:45So it's all going on.
19:46It's happy hour now for this qualifying session as they all get out there and try and find some space.
19:51See the reference for Lowndes in the bottom left corner of screen.
19:54Shane Van Gisbergen had a great battle yesterday with his teammate and his Kiwi mate, Fabian Coulthard and Jonathan Webb.
20:02I thought that was a fantastic exchange between those guys.
20:05They all gave each other room.
20:06It was enticing motor racing.
20:09It was his birthday last week, Shane.
20:11He's ripe old age now of 24.
20:13Wind Cup's going quick.
20:14Lowndes going quick.
20:15Here's Craig on screen.
20:16Two green boxes.
20:17Good qualifying run too for David Wall.
20:19Oh!
20:20Big mistake.
20:21That will hurt.
20:25That was wild.
20:26He blocked the rear wheels, got sideways, battled to make it to the apex.
20:29I don't know how much it will hurt because he actually got the car in in the end.
20:33Let's see what it's done.
20:3432.55.
20:35That did knock him around because he was on for a 32.2 or 2 or 3.
20:40So there's a couple of tenths in that for sure.
20:42And you know what happens in that circumstance is you've got to pause the throttle.
20:45So he's in catch mode.
20:47Opposite lock with the steering.
20:49Throttle's at 0%.
20:50He's got to wait for it to all calm down.
20:52He hit the apex mark but his throttle engagement on the other side will be a bit lower.
20:56How good is that?
20:57Kelly.
20:5832.84 up into third.
20:59And watch out for Jamie Wind Cup.
21:01He's on a flyer.
21:02Two green boxes.
21:05He keeps it straight.
21:06He will cross the line.
21:07He comes into picture now.
21:08We're on board with him.
21:09Wind Cup posts a 1.32.1.
21:11Yeah, that's more indicative.
21:13And that's what Lowndes would have wanted to have achieved.
21:16But for that little error.
21:18Here's Jason Bright responding.
21:20So 10 seconds away from the clock to zero here.
21:23Wind Cup on a 32.1.
21:25Lowndes 32.5.
21:26It's four tenths of a second margin.
21:28That's big.
21:29Then Coulthard three.
21:30Rick Kelly.
21:31Jason Bright's up to six.
21:33And that's a much better job today.
21:34Chicken flag out but lots of people to complete their laps.
21:38Now Gisbergen is one of them.
21:39So two personal best sectors means that he's close.
21:42He goes up to sixth.
21:44Garth Tanner just jumped into the tenth.
21:49That's just a whisker slower today for Jamie Wind Cup than Pohl yesterday.
21:53Here's Will Davison.
21:54Saw him at the, I would say petrol station, but here gas station this morning.
21:59He had a whopping headache last night when he left the circuit
22:03and had problems with the drink which we detailed in the coverage
22:06and with the cooling system in the car for him.
22:09He's down in 23rd.
22:10This should put him inside the top ten.
22:12Round about seventh or eighth position if he's still on the money.
22:17Just outside, 11th.
22:22All four of the cars, in fact you could say six really,
22:25performance racing fettled cars including the two that are getting assistance from Dick Johnson Racing.
22:31They're cars at the moment where the drivers are just not happy with either end enough all round this circuit.
22:37One end or the other misbehaves.
22:38And here's Brighton.
22:39He might have got through the flag, did he before?
22:41He did.
22:42Before the chequered came out so he might be on a lap here but we'll see a little change.
22:46That's Andrew Edwards, he can see on his computer that nothing's going to happen.
22:53There he is.
22:54Brad Jones to his left, our right.
22:57So that would finish a pair out there.
23:00Rick Kelly, great job there.
23:03Fifth.
23:04That's an excellent performance in qualifying.
23:06And another one-two for Red Bull Racing Australia.
23:10Another pole position for Jamie Winkup.
23:13We've got two wins yesterday and a pole.
23:15So look at that.
23:16One, two and three are the three guys that dominated the podium in both races yesterday.
23:21Rick Kelly in fifth.
23:23That's a season best for him and for Nissen in terms of qualifying.
23:26Alexander Primer will start from 16th.
23:28Chas Mostard inside him.
23:31And the back end made up for Alex Davison and David Reynolds down there in 25th.
23:3545th and 26th.
23:38So they will quickly regroup and come firing back out for another qualifying session.
23:43There's no break here in Texas.
23:50For the seventh time this season and the second time this weekend,
23:54Jamie Winkup has grabbed another armour-all pole position.
23:5845th of his career.
24:01He's just a steam train.
24:04They can't stop at the moment this weekend.
24:07Winner of both races, of course, yesterday.
24:09So they've had a quick break.
24:10Some drivers elected to jump out.
24:12Some drivers elected to stay in their cars.
24:14And now they've got another 15-minute session qualifying for race 16.
24:19And Neil made the point about Winkup's performance and his level of intensity
24:26and his ability to grab the car by the scruff of the neck and finish those very complex laps off.
24:33His qualifying absolutely is the benchmark.
24:36But you've also made the point, Kroppo, that when Lowndes, in comparison, doesn't qualify well enough,
24:42it has a massive bearing on where you actually race.
24:45And if you just took the two careers and you said,
24:48what has been the element that's made such a difference to the Winkup act is qualifying.
24:53And Jamie, obviously, an unbelievably good racer, but when he's in the lead and he's out the front,
24:58I said it yesterday, he's very Brock-esque.
25:00He's really operating at the highest level.
25:03We saw this happen yesterday, boys, where quite a few of the cars haven't departed immediately
25:07just finishing the work on them.
25:09Between a typical qualifying session like this in days gone past,
25:12the popular changes that you would do to the car may include a shock adjustment.
25:16That's a simple one.
25:17A spring adjustment or a spring change can be done in a few minutes.
25:20But the roll centre, you remember that little winding thing we used to put in the side of the window,
25:24adjust the roll centre.
25:25It was a great little tuning device between sessions like this.
25:28Well, now, to do that, you've actually got to move A-arms
25:31because we have independent rear suspension on the car.
25:34It's quite a drama, I won't go into the detail, but it's not something you do quickly,
25:38but it is something you need to do.
25:40Yeah, it's a really good point, Larko.
25:42And what it does also is in the tyre stops in the races, we've been seeing roll centre changes made.
25:51It means now that you can't make that roll centre change in the middle of the race,
25:54and the drivers have to drive around those issues.
25:57Now, when we talk about the roll centre, so the things that Mark was just referring to as
26:00the coil spring or the shock absorber or the rear roll centre,
26:05are all about either stiffening or softening the rear of the car,
26:09depending on what the ailment is.
26:11And the engineering aspects of this are obviously very, very complex.
26:14Big moment there for Winterbottom.
26:16Slide from the right and over the kerb pretty hard.
26:19That will have cost him time.
26:21He hasn't backed out of it though.
26:23Well, now he has.
26:25No, he's still on.
26:26But he's got green in these tyres, so he doesn't want to waste it.
26:29But that would have hurt because it caught the kerb awkwardly on the land
26:33and sort of a second attack at the kerb.
26:36Pretty wild stuff.
26:37And this is what Mark was just making reference to.
26:39It's an extension of a conversation we're having earlier about how to string it all together.
26:44The work rate here is the replay.
26:46Just check this out, we'll come back to it.
26:47So it cranks sideways, which puts him in an awkward position for this kerb
26:50and then it catches it just on the exit part of the kerb
26:53and flew it back into the air.
26:55So with so much going on, eye, hand, foot movement,
26:59trying to get the car position in just the right spot
27:01with a 20-turn track as busy as this one.
27:04At maximum attack, the full grip threshold of the tyre,
27:08it's hard to do.
27:09It's very hard to do.
27:10And it's a hard track to sight where you want to be.
27:12It's difficult to see the apexes in a number of spots.
27:15And if you did make a direct comparison between Winkup and Lowndes, as you said, Mark,
27:21and you look particularly at Aaron Noonan's stat from yesterday about, you know,
27:25had, if you looked at Lowndes post-Sandown last year to now versus Jamie,
27:30poles apart in qualifying, but quite close in racing.
27:33It's qualifying that's actually making it.
27:35Yeah, Neil.
27:36As we get to sort of it, this is now the second qualifying session today,
27:39the fourth of the weekend.
27:40We've already had two races yesterday.
27:41We're getting to this area where you've really got to play your tyre game carefully.
27:44Now, I'm standing in front of the Red Bull garage,
27:46two distinctly different strategies.
27:48Jamie's just gone out again on a used set of tyres.
27:51Craig Lowndes sat in the garage here the whole time on a green set.
27:55He's just departed.
27:56I can see his garage there.
27:57He's got nothing left.
27:58I look in Jamie's garage.
28:00He's got four tyres yet to run on.
28:02So they're going to bang their tyres down at different periods during this sequence.
28:06Todd Kelly's just banged down at 133.25 in the session that we previously had.
28:12He made it into the top ten, qualified ninth.
28:15That's a season best for Todd.
28:17And as I mentioned, a season best also for his brother, Rick, who qualified fifth.
28:21Scott McLaughlin here on screen.
28:23It's just gone P2.
28:24One minute, 32.9.
28:25And that lap that we were watching Mark Winterbottom on was only a mid 33.
28:29That mistake that happened down through this S-Bend sequence here from three through to seven really hurt him.
28:35So 32.8, Garth Tander.
28:37We're on board with Scott McLaughlin again.
28:39In the foreground there was Tim Slade.
28:41They've been having some power steering drummers with those Mercedes Benz 63 AMGs this weekend.
28:48But we've seen a couple of occasions where they've shown a turn of speed here.
28:52Tander driving very aggressively in that earlier qualifying session when we caught a shot of him just trying to make some pace.
28:58He ended up finishing inside the tent just.
29:01He was tenth.
29:02So Tander 32.8, one tenth up on McLaughlin.
29:06Then Caruso, in fact, has just jumped now into second place in the north entry 36.
29:11Alberto Sports.
29:12It's a little bit mixed up here at the moment until everybody gets out.
29:15And tyre's the key.
29:17Remember, again, the point that I made earlier about Jason Bright sacrificing tyres yesterday to ensure he's got a great bank of tyres today.
29:24As Mark Baritta detailed before, they had tickled up that car and made some genuine games.
29:30He might go slightly quicker here in the last sector.
29:34So he was up by about a tenth and a half on his 32.8 and he ended up doing a 33.18.
29:39Lowndes is quick here as well.
29:41Headlights to blaze means that he's on a queue lap.
29:43He's got fresh tyres on the car.
29:45Bit of oversteer on the exit.
29:46Then you saw it wriggling.
29:47He's coming up to Russell Ingle.
29:49So his first sector split the best we've seen in the session at 27.0 on the run between turn 4 and 5.
29:58So mistake it was turn 19, the second last corner for Craig Lowndes when we were watching him in that last qualifying session.
30:05He'll be very, very focused on trying to make sure he stitches this just nicely.
30:10Bit of oversteer in the mid corner through 17 and 18.
30:13He's almost out of road on the exit.
30:16Here's where it went wrong for him before.
30:19It crossed up on the break entry into 19.
30:21It was tidier then.
30:22Russell dives out of the way into the pit lane.
30:24In the Stanley entry.
30:26One corner remaining.
30:27Two green boxes and that's very Craig Esk.
30:30Second gear oversteer sliding onto the straight and it's a one minute 32.7 for Craig Lowndes.
30:36It won't be enough.
30:37That won't be anywhere near good enough.
30:38And the guys can't refuel between the two sessions.
30:41So the cars should be faster and lighter in this session we're watching right now.
30:47So Lowndes to the top.
30:48Tanda Caruso.
30:49Great job.
30:50McLaughlin.
30:51Todd Kelly.
30:52Dalberto.
30:53Great job.
30:54James Courtney.
30:55Scott Pye.
30:56A very, very good performance there in ninth at the moment.
30:58Rick Kelly rounds out the 10.
31:00Bright's not yet recorded a time so this is his first flyer.
31:03And don't be fooled by the red boxes because he's only six one hundredths of a second off
31:08the time at the second sector mark so he's going to be super close here to Craig Lowndes'
31:13time while Jamie Winkup is now out on the circuit as well.
31:16And the set of the car looks a lot better than yesterday.
31:19That was tidier than the exit you saw for Craig Lowndes before.
31:22And where does it drop in?
31:24Call it off there.
31:25Call it off.
31:26It's T5 with that.
31:2732.9 the number for Jason Bright.
31:29You won't be happy with that.
31:30Mind you there's not as much pace in this session right at the moment.
31:34So maybe the temp's up.
31:35It's certainly blustery windy out there.
31:37Struggling there.
31:40You can hear the tyre.
31:42It's got a chatter.
31:44Yeah, it's actually, it tears across the top of the road and it chatters.
31:47It makes it understeer.
31:48You can hear the front tyre there at turn 19.
31:50Everybody so far that we've watched has really struggled in that spot.
31:54So Winkup with a 33.1.
31:56Prem has just come up into sixth.
31:58Watch it on slayers and let's have a solid inlet property.
32:03You don't need to worry about hurting these tyres on the inlet.
32:06Jamie Winkup slots inside the top ten but right now it's his team mate searching for his first
32:11pole position of the year leading the way.
32:18Welcome back to the Austin 400 qualifying for race 16.
32:21The second race today and we're checking out Davey Reynolds here.
32:25The bottle of four down in 20th.
32:27But this is a much better lap.
32:29Around this sweeping right-hander turns 17 to 18.
32:36Then the left-hander 19.
32:38Another incline.
32:39A ten metre rises in front of him before he finishes off the lap and moves up the order.
32:44The question is how far.
32:48Craig Lowndes times the benchmark so far.
32:50132.7.
32:52Reynolds outside the top ten.
32:54Eleventh with a 133.28.
32:5729 degrees at the moment.
32:59Predicted temp.
33:00High of 35.
33:01Jamie Winkup decides to get a gulp of fresh air.
33:04Mark Dutton actually warned him on the radio.
33:07You can't do that brother.
33:08And it underlines just how roaring hot it is out there at the moment.
33:11It's been a big talking point.
33:13We're on board now with McLaughlin who barely pulled that Fujitsu car up.
33:16He just got it at the apex but the rear brakes were locking as he fitted the lower gear.
33:21He's currently fourth in the field but he's pressing on on this lap.
33:24We've got two minutes and 40 seconds remaining in qualifying.
33:27This is the run down to turn seven.
33:29It gets busier and tighter as they go.
33:32And it's so easy to overstep that curbing down there.
33:38Scott Pye.
33:39He's 14th at the moment in the Ecol entry.
33:42Yeah and I think the sad story for this session is going to be our current pole sitter as Craig Lowndes.
33:47Because he's one of the few guys that's gone out.
33:49All they've done is put a used set of tyres on and rotated them around the other way.
33:53Meaning the tyres that have been used less are going to be the tyres that will be used most.
33:56But he's going to get bumped.
33:58He will definitely get bumped.
33:59There's no way that a 32.7 will stay as a pole time.
34:04Young David Wall meantime has done the fastest first sector.
34:07That was Scott Pye right off the road.
34:09That lap will be over and out.
34:10So now he's going to start this lap.
34:12So you can't run all four wheels over the white line.
34:16And that's started with massive understeer.
34:18You could literally hear at home the front right tyre protesting.
34:23So we're watching McLaughlin here.
34:25This is a great lap.
34:26David Wall's going very, very quickly as well.
34:28Tander also quick.
34:29So we're in the happy hour phase with 90 seconds remaining in this qualifying session.
34:34What can Scotty produce?
34:35It's great.
34:36One minute 32.6 for a new provisional pole for Scott McLaughlin.
34:40Rick Kelly's fastest to the second sector.
34:45Can he knock McLaughlin off the top?
34:47Yes.
34:48A 1.32.4.
34:49But watch out for David Wall.
34:50The green car crosses the line.
34:52Second.
34:53That's 32.43.
34:540.005 the difference between first and second.
34:590.005 the difference between one and two now.
35:01McLaughlin third lounge.
35:02Tander also on a good lap.
35:03Tander should actually go to the top with this one.
35:04This one might be a low 32 if he finishes this world.
35:06Here he comes.
35:07Tander.
35:08It's a 32.2.
35:09And Tander goes to the top.
35:10That's the biggest improvement he's had this weekend.
35:11It's speed in that car.
35:12So Tander.
35:13It's a 32-2, and Tanda goes to the top.
35:21That's the biggest improvement he's had this weekend in speed in that car,
35:25so Tanda, Rick Kelly, David Wall, there's an order for you.
35:28Van Gisburgh and Caruso, McLaughlin's down in sixth now.
35:31Also jumping up his wind cup.
35:33It's the first 1 minute 31 we've seen this weekend.
35:36A 1 minute 31.99 with 30 seconds to go.
35:40Jason Bright on the fastest first sector also, 26.93.
35:45Fabian Coulthard, 32.17, goes to two.
35:48This is electrifying. Jonathan Webb, top six now.
35:52That's a great effort, David Wall, in P5.
35:54Here's Bright, this is a great lap.
35:56Ten seconds to go in the final qualifying session at the Austin 400.
36:00Jamie Winkup, who shut out the front row for the previous session with his teammate.
36:06Can he hold on to another position?
36:08Look out, here comes Jason Bright.
36:10The flag's dropped.
36:13Bright's quickest to the second sector.
36:15He's a tenth up.
36:16So they've lifted to the very last moment when the track's got the most amount of rubber on it,
36:21get their fresh tyres on and have one more crack.
36:25Jason Bright's got two corners remaining and a big lock-up going into 19.
36:28Does he run wide?
36:29He hangs on to it.
36:30Has that cost him any time?
36:32What it tends to do is make you late on the throttle on the exit.
36:36Final corner for Jason Bright.
36:38Winkup's on the divisional pole and Bright goes to position four.
36:43Winkup, Kultar.
36:45Nice there, Brighty, man.
36:46You were on your P4 at the moment.
36:49Your first two sectors were faster.
36:51So it was quite a good effort.
36:52It was a great effort and it cost him that little break lock.
36:55So Winkup, Kultar, Tander, Bright.
36:58Then Rick Kelly, David Wall again in the ten.
37:00Then Webb, Van Gisburgh and Caruso and Winterbottom.
37:04Behind them is Scott McLaughlin and Craig Lowndes.
37:07So they have busted up the Red Bull partnership,
37:10but they haven't shut down the Red Bull domination at the front of Jamie Winkup.
37:16And Craig, he basically ran out of tyres.
37:18He had no more to fight with.
37:20So 32-7 was the best that he could do.
37:23This is Lee Holdsworth.
37:25He's currently in 26th.
37:27This is his best lap so far.
37:29He will come up with the order.
37:30Must have been one of the last ones to get through.
37:40It's slightly slower in the last sector.
37:42Did a 33-8-6.
37:44And what a performance again from this man.
37:46Fastest lap of the weekend.
37:48Yesterday was previous there.
37:4932-03, 31-99 now.
37:52For both races this afternoon,
37:53Jamie Winkup will start from position one.
37:56Garth Tander, that's his best qualifying effort of 2013.
38:00David Wall inside the top ten.
38:02And as you mentioned, Mark Winterbottom rounding out the ten.
38:05Tony Dalberto and Alex Davison.
38:07So Alex Davison's managed to push forward.
38:10His brother Will will start from 14th.
38:13And rear of the grid goes to Morrow Engel and Tim Blanchard.
38:17So now eight pole positions for 2013.
38:20Two in a row.
38:22And three out of four for the weekend for Jamie Winkup.
38:25He's a numbers man.
38:27They're starting to stack up quickly.
38:30So three out of four pole positions for Jamie Winkup
38:38in this made-in-America weekend here at Circuit of the Americas.
38:42Check this out.
38:42Flings the door open to get some cool air into the cabin.
38:45Another $1,000 in the bank.
38:47He's with Barrettes.
38:49Well, Jamie Winkup, you continue to be the story of the weekend.
38:52Pole for races 15 and 16.
38:54Nice way to start this second day at Austin.
38:56Yeah, obviously the car's very, very good.
38:59It's so hot out here.
39:00It looks overcast.
39:01But the temp's out of control.
39:02It's not even there summer yet.
39:03So, no, it was hard work.
39:06But got there.
39:06The car's very, very good.
39:08Speaking of temperature, the manual air conditioning seemed to work all right when you flung the door open.
39:11Yeah, I was burning up.
39:13I just finished the lap.
39:14I didn't breathe that much through the whole lap.
39:16And I was burning up.
39:17So I knew there was some risk of getting excluded.
39:19But it was worth the risk.
39:21I knew we'd be able to sort it back out when we got back to the pit.
39:23But as soon as you open the door, it cools the captain temp down about 10 degrees, which is a massive relief.
39:29You are the man to catch, Jamie.
39:30Well done.
39:31Two more races to go.
39:32See where we go.
39:33Garth Tander over here just having a quick debrief with his engineers.
39:36I hate to interrupt you there just for two seconds.
39:39Garth, 14 races in, mate.
39:42And your best qualifying position, you must be happy about that.
39:45It's taken a while.
39:46It's taken a little while.
39:46I thought you put the moz on me on Friday.
39:48We said we're going good.
39:49And then yesterday wasn't that great.
39:50But, yeah, we found something overnight.
39:52We've had an inherent problem with the car all year.
39:54And we found something overnight.
39:55I think it's a direction.
39:56I don't know.
39:57Certainly not fully fixed yet.
39:58But we started in a direction of that first quality session.
40:01We got closer.
40:02And then we didn't actually change it for that last session.
40:05I just drove it.
40:06And, yeah, we got a lap out of it.
40:07So our race pace in the races yesterday was competitive.
40:10It wasn't sort of Jamie and Craig pace.
40:12But we were competitive.
40:13So hopefully this makes it a bit better in the races.
40:15Certainly qualifying up the front makes life a lot easier.
40:17Nice start.
40:17Well done, mate.
40:17Thanks, Marker.
40:18So Garth Tander starting the final race from the second row of the grid.
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40:49Great performance from Rick Kelly.
40:50Two top five qualifying sessions.
40:53Another Nissan, the Norton of Michael Caruso, has posted a career season best, rather, of ninth.
40:58So both inside the top ten.
41:00After this, the build-up to the first race, the final day of the Austin 400.
41:04And we'll see you later.