Tony D’Alberto and Grant Denyer made it two wins in a row yesterday, after taking out the opening two-hour race in the Jacuzzi Spas Australian Production Car Series.
The Lotus duo took advantage of a late-race penalty given to Ryan Simpson and Jim Pollicina after a Safety Car restart, which saw the other Lotus entry forfeit the lead.
D’Alberto reflected on the race, saying he was ‘driving as fast as he could’.
“Ryan had that mistake at the restart and came out quite a bit behind us—I could see him when I was coming onto the front straight and the time he was taking out of me each lap was a huge amount,” D’Alberto said.
“I was driving as fast as I could … we had a slight little problem at the end that slowed us down, but he was just quicker today and we will have to try and work out why.
“He was certainly putting the pressure on at the end.”
Simpson fought back after the penalty to finish 0.2 seconds behind D’Alberto at the end of the 120-minute race.
“They [the team] were counting down how many minutes to go and how far behind and I said, ‘You don’t have to tell me how far behind because I can see him’,” D’Alberto added.
“It was a good win, but we will have to find a bit more speed if we are going to try and knock them off again.
“I think [the problem with the car] will be sorted, we just have to look at exactly what it was—it knocked quite a bit of pace off those last couple of laps.
“We were literally lucky it wasn’t a longer race because I was a sitting duck at the end.”
“It was really good for the boys—we had a rough start at Sandown and we are chipping away at the points now, so it is nice.”
The Jacuzzi Spas Australian Production Car Series will return later today for their second race of the round at Winton Motor Raceway.