Todd on the verge of top ten finish
Tuesday 23 August 2011
Todd Fiore came away from the fourth round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Queensland Raceway in 12th position overall, after managing to steer clear of all the chaos in the weekend's three races. With 9 out of the top 10 drivers having secured an endurance drive this year, the Fujitsu Series is faring to be more competitive than ever.
Saturday's opening race saw a multi-car accident exiting turn one, followed by a hit between Jack Perkins and Nick Percat at turn three moments later which meant that the Safety Car was quickly called. Todd drove with a very level head and managed to make his way up from his qualifying position of 20th to inside the top 10, before the second restart saw him caught out on the residual oil from the earlier incidents, resulting in him coming home in 13th place.
The skies opened up on Sunday for the second race of the weekend, which was set to be Todd's first ever race in a V8 Supercar in the wet. Despite the very limited visibility in the conditions, most of the field managed to stick to the track for the 15 lap race. However, starting the race from the inside of the track meant Todd had little to no grip off the start line and bogged down early and lost a pile of positions. He clawed his way back as his confidence on the Dunlop wets grew and ended up setting the 3rd fastest time up until the last lap, and the 6th fastest time overall for the race. He managed to get the chequered flag in 15th position.
Todd started 15th for the final race of the weekend, which was run on a wet but drying track. Starting on the inside again proved even more difficult on slick tyres, however the track dried out over the duration of the race. The #23 LD TOTAL Falcon didn't have the pace to stick with the top 10, but Todd held onto his 15th position for the 22 lap race.
"It was a good weekend but it had the possibility to be better. I am happy that we avoided all of the carnage and finished all 3 races; however we had some really good pace in the wet that we didn't capitalize on as I was far too cautious in the opening laps.
"To finish 12th overall was good, but a top 10 was definitely within reach," Todd commented.
The Queensland Raceway round was the last before the support event to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
