VX Racing dominates Thruxton qualifying

Sat 25th April 2009 It was another front row lock out for VX Racing in qualifying for the second round of the 2009 season of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship. Following a 1-2 qualifying at the first event of the season two weeks ago at Brands Hatch circuit, with Matt Neal on pole, it was current champion, Giovanardi who needed only one flying lap to take the top spot today, despite missing the second practice session after clashing with a rival racer.

Early morning practice, with dry conditions, gave the VX Racing team its first taste of the Thruxton circuit. All three drivers waited until the session was underway before taking to the track, but after only a few minutes the trio quickly resumed their customary front of pack positions. At the end of the forty minutes session Giovanardi had shown his superiority with the fastest time of the session. Neal, carrying maximum ballast, was fourth quickest with team mate Jordan close behind with fifth fastest lap.

The second practice session produced unwanted drama for Giovanardi, with the Italian driver being crashed into by Stephen Jelley whilst the VX Racing driver was on his out lap. He said after the incident, “I’ve no idea what happened; I was warming my tyres. I saw a car behind me so I left room for him to pass me. Then a little later I was just smashed into from the side, but on my right side, which was very unexpected. I can only think that he made a mistake, ended up on the grass then spun in front of me. I was looking to the left, but the car came into me from the right!”

In the absence of Giovanardi it was Neal who posted fastest time in the second practice session, with Jordan close behind with fifth quickest lap. Meanwhile the highly professional Triple Eight crew quickly set to work to make the necessary repairs before qualifying and with less than two hours it was a race against time to ready the No.1 car of Fabrizio. With minutes to spare the car was ready and the Italian was back behind the wheel.

Afternoon qualifying started with VX Racing dominating the time sheets. The three drivers took the top three positions after their first run. It was the only lap that Giovanardi needed to secure pole for the team, blitzing the opposition pole on his first flying lap, an outstanding effort by both the crew and the driver. Having posted an unbeatable 1m17.985s seconds lap the reigning champion was able to preserve his tyre allocation for tomorrow’s races.

The polesitter said after the session, “I’ll be happy when we finish first in the race, finishing first in qualifying doesn’t mean anything yet. The car was really good. Even though we had the crash in second practice, I knew we were in good shape as the car had felt so good earlier on this morning. I couldn’t have been second with no ballast on the car when my team mate is close behind me with full ballast on.”

Neal, with the heaviest car of the field impressed with his second fastest time, giving him the front row slot alongside his team mate. The driver said, “We’ve had a better start to the weekend than I had expected. The car is fantastic around here, my fastest laps weren’t completely clean, I made a couple of little mistakes on both, but to be on the front row with Fabrizio is job done from my perspective. The car does feel very hooked up around here, especially in qualifying trim, but tomorrow’s another day. We’re going to have our hands full, but we’re starting in the right place for some good results.”

Jordan, in only his second weekend of racing in the VX Racing Vauxhall posted fourth quickest time. He was lying third for the majority of the session, but Jason Plato denied the VX Racing squad of a 1-2-3 when he was pipped to the second row slot by the Chevrolet driver in the closing minutes of the session.

The 19-year-old said of his qualifying, “I’m really frustrated actually. I thought we had a 1-2-3 on the grid and then Jason [Plato] put in a lap at the end to put me down to fourth. I know I had the pace to be at least third, I made a mistake on one of my quickest laps which lost me quite a lot of time, so I know that we’re capable of being higher up. I made some good starts last time out at Brands Hatch so I’ll be visualising doing that on the grid again tomorrow. Hopefully we can lose Jason at the start and then the three of us can pull away.”

VX Racing lead the way in this year’s BTCC after the first round of racing at Brands Hatch two weeks ago. Neal heads the Drivers’ championship and with the reigning champion, team mate Fabrizi, alongside him on the grid for the first race, the team is set for an exciting battle tomorrow at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.