Cameron Crick has taken opening blood on the first day of official competition for the Haltech V8 SuperUte Series at the OTR Bend SuperSprint, topping the overall practice times in his Mitsubishi Triton after today’s pair of 20-minute sessions.
Ryal Harris was fastest in the first session, before Crick eclipsed his time in the second session.
While Crick was pleased with his performance, he said there is still more to come.
“It’s very lively in the rear, but going fast in a big car like this is a lot of fun,” Crick said.
“We still have some work to do with the rear suspension, but overall the car is much better and with the V8 engine, it moves along quite well down the straight.
“The times were close between me and Ryal today; he’s pretty quick in anything he jumps in, so I think qualifying tomorrow will be a dogfight.”
Harris, second-fastest overall aboard his Mazda BT-50, is also expecting a close qualifying contest and is confident he will be on the pace tomorrow.
“Combining all my fastest sectors, I was only a tenth slower than Cricky so we’re not too worried,” Harris said.
“You can be more aggressive in the corners with the V8, because you don’t have to worry so much about losing momentum, but we’re still getting used to the tyre package – they’re grippy at the start, but then they fall away.”
Ben Walsh was third for the day in his Toyota Hilux, and was thankful to be back on track.
“Everyone is green with these cars, so I’m happy to be on the pace and there’s still a fair bit of time to be found,” Walsh said.
“I’m pretty happy with the second session, because I was on a good lap before the red flag came out.”
The red flag in question was caused due to a minor fire for Christopher Formosa, which was quickly extinguished by the officials. The damage to Formosa’s Ford Ranger was superficial and the team have confirmed he will be back on track tomorrow.
SuperUtes qualifying commences at 9:40am tomorrow, with Race 1 at 2:20pm.
