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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.
00:25Here 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.
01:37Yes, we are breaking new ground in Australian motorsport for the first time ever.
01:42Our V8 Supercars have come to play in the USA.
01:46This is Austin, the capital city of the Lone Star State of Texas.
01:50And this weekend, Americans are being introduced to our style of racing.
01:54The rough and tumble of the Aussie V8s.
01:57This is our venue, the circuit of the Americas, $400 million in the making.
02:02It is fast and flowing, spectacular rise and fall.
02:05It has got character.
02:06It has got attitude.
02:08It is great to be here in pit lane for a landmark day in the V8 Supercars.
02:13Hi, everybody.
02:14I'm Matt White and welcome to the Austin 400 on 7 Sport.
02:17These are exciting times for our championship.
02:20A quick snapshot of the weekend.
02:22Two qualifying sessions, two races, 100 kilometres each, both today and today.
02:27These guys, Marks Gaff and Neil Crompton.
02:33This is a seriously cool city and a very cool racetrack.
02:36It is, Matt.
02:37Hi, hi, everybody.
02:38This is great.
02:39It's really wonderful to be here.
02:40Great anticipation turning up at this venue.
02:42We heard great reports about this facility last year from Formula One.
02:46The drivers raved about the track.
02:47They raved about the facility and they raved about the town.
02:50Everybody loves Austin.
02:52A lot of Aussie expats have come here.
02:54There's a heap of Aussies as well and more locals than I would have thought, Scafie.
02:58And, I mean, it's a great fit for our category because the visual cues of our car, the look and the sound.
03:02I always thought that things would work well here.
03:04And I couldn't believe it.
03:05I was genuinely excited as I drove here.
03:07The enormity of this complex and this stadium is fantastic.
03:09Unbelievable, Neil.
03:10And one of the things that struck me, I mean, you've done some racing in America.
03:13And the way that these people have got behind the sport here, I've been blown away by the reaction.
03:17But when you drive out of downtown Austin, everything is big.
03:20You said it.
03:21And you drive up to the place.
03:22The hill is massive.
03:23The tower is massive.
03:24The amount of money they've spent on it is unbelievable.
03:26And a big learning curve for everybody.
03:28Whole circuit, 20 corners, 3.68 k's.
03:33And all of the guys are pioneers at a new place like this.
03:36I'm really looking forward to qualifying.
03:37You will hear us talk a lot about rise and fall, this spectacular elevation and undulation.
03:42Well, Mark Beretta is in the perfect spot to put all that into perspective.
03:47Matt, if you really want the best view of the circuit of the Americas, this is where you get it.
03:5270 metres up in the observation tower of this track.
03:56It is the one iconic location that you see from all around this circuit as you approach.
04:00Austin is directly over that way.
04:02And over here behind us, the pit area, the main grandstand.
04:05And, of course, the famous Turn 1.
04:07At the back of this tower, you notice, of course, the red steel that goes down the back.
04:11That's to simulate the lights, tail lights, as they would look at night going up in towards Turn 1.
04:16Great feature here, too, a glass bottom.
04:19So, from here, you look straight down onto another one of these magnificent corners.
04:23But let's talk about the toughest corner on this track, Turn 1.
04:26Here's Larko.
04:27Yeah, Beretta, and one of the things I really love about coming to new race circuits like this
04:32is the technical challenges thrown to both teams from a car setup point of view and drivers from a driving point of view.
04:38And this place has got plenty.
04:40No more than just right here.
04:42Now, it's going to be very hard, a little bit like Bathurst, to get some feel, some sense in the television pictures of the elevation that the drivers experience here.
04:50Now, from that pit wall you can see down there behind me, which is probably, I don't know, 120, 130 metres away,
04:55this elevates 24 metres in that short distance.
04:58Now, the hill itself is not a problem.
05:00But as you crest it and come to the tight little hairpin here, Turn 1, the drivers can't see that from the seat.
05:06So, look for this corner for overshooting that mark, missing that apex and an overtaking opportunity.
05:12Yeah, it's one to watch. We've had four practice sessions so far, and right here it's kind of like a blind date, isn't it?
05:18The track and the drivers need to get out and get to know each other first.
05:22It certainly is. This was some drama yesterday with Jonathan Webb and James Moffat.
05:27James Moffat actually ended up getting a five grid spot penalty for that.
05:30Jonathan Webb, it was an oil failure, it broke an oil line, didn't it, Neil? And that was the end of that.
05:34Have a look at this graphic vision of Lowndes having a spin.
05:38I said yesterday that I've never seen Lowndes turn around.
05:40That was Turn 17, 18. That's out of Turn 11.
05:43Lots of guys guy rating.
05:45A lot of it going on. Here's David Reynolds on the AstroTurf.
05:47Plenty of people exceeding the limits.
05:48In fact, there were 20 breaches of people who had times deleted in practice
05:52for wandering off the racetrack in search of speed, pushing too hard.
05:55It's a complicated track. It's hard to sight the apexes.
05:58The curbs are huge. The track is so smooth, it's extraordinary, but the curbs are not.
06:03We saw a lot of motocross action. Here's Rick Kelly with the thing burying the nose off the top of the jump there.
06:08So we had four practice sessions yesterday and in the end it was Craig Lowndes who was very, very quick.
06:13Yeah, but this weekend is not just about this circuit, it's about this city.
06:16We've already had a lot of fun here.
06:17We've been sending out our drivers to get a taste of Texas Craig Lowndes.
06:22You'll see boots, you'll actually see some bad dresses, you'll see lots of great barbecues.
06:26The boys have had an absolute ball.
06:28So saddle up if you can because qualifying for the Austin 400 is coming up right after this.
06:33Well this is the scene in Austin, Texas. The circuit of the Americas for our fifth event in the 2013 championship.
07:00Making up this weekend races 13, 14, 15 and 16 of our season.
07:05The format today, two 15 minute qualifying sessions to determine pole positions and the grids for the two 100km races with compulsory pit stops here.
07:15And we'll do that format all again tomorrow.
07:19The V8s will be using the modified circuit here, shortened by just under 2km from that circuit used by the Formula One World Championship exactly six months ago today.
07:30These drivers are keen and ready to fire.
07:33Good to see Greg Murphy here as well.
07:35Murph of course joined us at our last event in Perth in Pit Lane filling in for Mark Barretta and he's here in Austin, Texas running a tour group.
07:42So this is our track, Neil Crompton, take us through it.
07:453.68km, Matty, 20 corners in total.
07:49There's a lot of squiggles out there so you're not on the throttle all the time here.
07:52Only 40% of the time 100% flat out throttle.
07:55The slowest corner is down at turn 15.
07:58It's just 70km an hour.
08:00Fastest corner, it's a ripper at turn two.
08:02They're changing between fourth and fifth gear there at 180km.
08:05Top speed, 240km an hour on the run to turn one.
08:10It's pretty hard on brakes.
08:11It's super smooth as a racetrack but the kerbs are very, very high.
08:15We're going to see some great action here in qualifying because it's one of those tracks where you've got to really throw the car at it.
08:25And it's been the ultimate balancing act for these drivers and teams.
08:29You mentioned the three sectors.
08:31Well, Gartenda summed it up pretty well.
08:33It's a track of two halves.
08:34The fast and flowing is great but the shortened stop is really hard.
08:38And that's that thin edge that they're trying to ride.
08:45Isn't this something?
08:46Out of pit lane, up the hill towards turn one.
08:50Beautiful sunshine here today.
08:52It's going to be hot too.
08:5335 degrees maximum.
08:55It's already climbing towards the 30s.
09:00A couple of little points to tick off here.
09:02Some aggravation which we covered at the top of the show yesterday for James Moffat.
09:07It actually happened before he got to the last corner.
09:10Somehow got tangled up with Jonathan Webb as a result of that little infringement.
09:16James is going to take a five grid spot penalty in this qualifying.
09:19So that's just important to take into account.
09:21The reason that I say it is that the Nissan Altimas have been very, very quick here so far this weekend.
09:28The cars are handling well.
09:29And there's not a huge requirement as I said in the little track item there for 100% throttle all the time.
09:34And it hasn't hurt them this track like we thought it might have because of the long straight and the run uphill.
09:39So I think that you'll see that all the Nissan's going to be reasonably quick and these guys have been stronger as well.
09:44And Sadie's E63 AMG saw Tim Slade well in amongst it yesterday 6th and 7th on a couple of occasions in sessions.
09:51This is Lee Holtzworth.
09:53And Neil, I think you'd expect the Nissan of Todd Kelly to be fast straight away.
09:58Just having a blaze down pit lane, and I mean a blaze because it's about four and a half kilometres long.
10:02The tyres being used, that one's pretty well gone out on used tyres because we'll talk a lot about needing to conserve your tyres.
10:07Todd Kelly's gone out on a brand new set of tyres I noticed and Scott McLaughlin has gone out on his wets.
10:12He's obviously going to get himself in the zone before he puts any tyres in his car.
10:15Yeah well Unlucko, the reason for that is just to get the temperatures up.
10:20So all the brake temperatures and engine temperatures up so that when you do put the fresh tyres on, the car is at its best to coincide with the tyre quality.
10:30This will be a very interesting session.
10:32Guys have got seven sets of tyres for the weekend.
10:35They minimised the usage of those through practice yesterday.
10:39And it's a circuit that's very very hard on the tyre in certain areas but quite easy in others.
10:46So this area here, this is just fast flowing, slalom style.
10:51Very symmetrical in terms of rights and lefts through that whole piece right down to...
10:57This section now is a short circuit down to turn 11.
11:01But from here on the circuit is what Matt was referring to as the Garth Tanner comment.
11:06It becomes very slow, very drive sensitive and very difficult to get the front of the car turned in nicely and the rear of the car to not oversteer.
11:17So it's a complex circuit, 20 corners as Neil said.
11:21And all this section that we're looking at now on board with Lee Holdsworth is a very, very...
11:27It's so complex that you have to drive it back at like 9 tenths.
11:31If you try to overdrive it, it's very easy to make a mistake.
11:34He ended up being 16th fastest yesterday after the combined times were taken into account through the four practice sessions, Lee Holdsworth.
11:42You have a power steering drama at one point during the day and just general complaints about grip.
11:46Well, he's got a little complaint about it there at the moment on the AstroTurf.
11:49Wide of the line at turn 19, the second last corner.
11:53Cam McConville, the driving standards observer in the drivers briefing last night, warned the drivers about being too aggressive too often on the outside of turn 19.
12:05And there's the boss, Betty Climenko from Erebus Motorsport V8.
12:08Made the journey across the Pacific.
12:10So, if the drivers end up with all four wheels and tyres wide of the defined racetrack, that is the white lines at the edge of the racetrack and on the AstroTurf, they could incur a penalty.
12:22So, Tim Slade was the top of the list for a nanosecond.
12:25Dave Reynolds has just knocked him off.
12:27Alex Davison and now Shane Van Gisbergen has gone to the top with a very, very healthy lap time, a 34.3.
12:33The fastest time we saw yesterday, Craig Lowndes at 32.9.
12:37That was right at the end of the day on brand new tyres.
12:40So, everybody will go, I would think, a little faster than the current times that we're seeing as a 34.3, the top of the list.
12:49So, it may not be indicative until we see absolute green tyres go onto those cars.
12:57Defending series champ Jamie Winkup has been under the radar a little bit throughout the practice sessions as we zero in on Rick Kelly and the Jack Daniels dissent.
13:06And he does a 133.69.
13:10So, that's setting the benchmark a little bit better.
13:13And just so you guys can keep your eye on the game there, Craig Lowndes and Winkup both come in.
13:17Lowndes went back out unused and Winkup put a new one.
13:20For that moment in time that 47 Slade was at the top of the big Christmas tree here on the end of pit lane.
13:25All his team ran out with their cameras and took a photo of it. Great to see.
13:30Exactly, Larka. We said the same thing. It was fantastic to see the Mercedes at the top of the timesheets and now the Nissan at the top of the timesheets.
13:38So, this is an extraordinary circuit and one that doesn't have horsepower sensitivity to the sort of tune that we saw at places like Barbagello or Tasmania.
13:48So, there you go. Position one, car 15, Rick Kelly.
13:52I spoke to all the boys in the Nissan squad last night and they were very happy about the handling of the cars.
13:57So, they felt that the place was going to suit them.
14:0033-6 is not a bad margin, is it?
14:03Rick Kelly's got 0.4 of a second over Shane Van Gisbergen who turned 24 last week.
14:08Happy birthday to the young Kiwi. He's in the VIP Pet Foods entry.
14:12Here we are on board with our reigning champion, Jamie Winkup.
14:15He's down the order at the moment for the reason we've gone to his car.
14:18Green Box. So, fastest man to the end of the first sector split for Jamie Winkup,
14:23whose overseas experiences so far have netted some tremendous results over a long period of time.
14:28And like many of the drivers, he's going to take some time off, head back to the western side of the US.
14:35He's going to go to Vegas. Partner arrived in town last night.
14:39He's looking forward to a little bit of R&R. He hasn't spent much time here in the US.
14:43This will be three green boxes for sure. You mentioned his figures.
14:46He's won 16 out of the 24 races held outside of Australia since 2008.
14:52But 1.32.8 for Jamie Winkup as he goes to the top.
14:560.7 clear of Rick Kelly.
14:59Will Davison buys into it as well into third for the Pepsi Max Ford FPR.
15:04So that's the best time we've seen this weekend.
15:06Jamie Winkup is a tenth cricketer than the time sent by his teammate yesterday, Craig Lowndes.
15:10Will Davison here, Ford Performance Racing, Pepsi Max, Ford Falcon.
15:15Mark Larkin made the point at the top of the show how hard it is to see the Apex at Turn 1,
15:20particularly sitting low in these cars.
15:23He's Moffat.
15:25Norton is an ultimate and he's at the bottom of the timesheets at the moment but just starting his lap.
15:31He's got the headlights on which is the unofficial signal that they're on a queue lap on the hot lap.
15:36A little bit of oversteer in the mid corner there through the fast right-hander.
15:40David Wall, good job guys.
15:42He's up to fourth.
15:43So Winkup, Kelly, Davison, Wall, Van Gisburgh in top five.
15:47McLaughlin now has come up into seven.
15:49Todd Kelly is down in eighth.
15:52And I think we should just add while we're looking at James Moffat on screen.
15:55He's been having a terrific weekend, very fast.
15:57But whatever he does here, he's going to cop a five-grid spot penalty for contact with Jonathan Webb during practice yesterday.
16:04So Moffat goes to 30 with a 34-1.
16:06He goes to six there, Marko.
16:08So if he stays there, he's an 11th.
16:10I don't think that with seven minutes to go that that's going to be indicative of the times
16:15because a lot of guys haven't used new tyres yet.
16:18Mark Winterbottom, Jason Bright, Fabian Coulthard, they're all right down the bottom.
16:22Adam Lowndes now comes up into second with a 33-6-7.
16:26Fabian Coulthard, we just made mention of him.
16:28He's come up into P2 with a 33-3.
16:41So here's Winterbottom.
16:43Down in 28th position currently.
16:46Approaching the halfway mark of this qualifying session.
16:49He goes up inside the top ten.
16:51So most of the cars now heading towards pit lane as Mark Winterbottom heads back up that long hill.
16:57Here at Circuit of the Americas, Jamie Winkup leads the way.
17:00The fastest time done by a V8 supercar so far at his circuit.
17:05Qualifying continues.
17:06The Austin 400s.
17:07Stick with us.
17:08Now they've been attacking this circuit from the word go.
17:20Yesterday was the time to get the feel of the circuit.
17:23And today's the time to put the times down and go for pole position.
17:27And look at that force in the rear of the Jack Daniels Nissan Altima.
17:31Just bottoming out as Todd Kelly takes it hard over the curves.
17:35Todd and Rick have not been afraid to just go straight at those curves across the four practice sessions and the qualifying sessions so far.
17:43I spoke to Dean Fiore about this subject last night and the bottom line is there's time in it.
17:47He said in the cars it feels so bad.
17:49Courtney on a hot lap here just locking up the unloaded front tyre.
17:53He's had traffic on this lap.
17:55He'll be frustrated about it.
17:56The precise moment that he began the quick lap was when a heap of people poured out of the pit lane.
18:01It's the big long sweeping right-hander at 17.
18:05And so Dean said the shock that goes through the car, through the seat, through the steering wheel when you clobber the curves is so violent it just feels mechanically wrong.
18:15But you've got no choice. Look Courtney having to go down the inside of David Reynolds in the final corner.
18:20This entire lap has been compromised by traffic.
18:24And David should have moved over then.
18:26That was out of order to stay out on the race line.
18:29So Courtney a very good job.
18:31He's on a 33.67 on that lap with the traffic that Neil made reference of up to fourth position.
18:36So there'd be three or four tenths of a second that would have compromised that lap for sure when he got to the traffic on his opening lap.
18:44And what he doesn't want to do, nor his engineers, is they don't want to have to use another tyre set now to dig out of that problem.
18:51Because with four qualifying sessions and four races with compulsory stops in the middle of them, tyre management's a critical story.
18:58There's seven sets available as you've mentioned.
19:00So for Courtney now to redeem that means basically having to sacrifice another set of tyres.
19:06So it was very awkward.
19:08He's Lowndes.
19:09Fast man at the moment.
19:10One green box.
19:11At 27.1, the timing split for him to the first timing sector.
19:15He was a quick man yesterday at the end of the four practice sessions.
19:18And when he did the time, we all opened our eyes wide because it was at that time a full second clear of anybody else.
19:25He was the first driver to jump onto a second set of tyres later in the day.
19:29Probably a very good use.
19:31Ultimately, the margin closed down to a little over three tenths of a second with Bill Davison.
19:35But it was a handsome margin.
19:36We don't often see it in the category.
19:38He pulled fifth gear then very early, Neil, off the back of where we saw him spin yesterday.
19:43And he got off the fast right at turn 18 really well.
19:48That's probably the best exit I've seen in terms of keeping the momentum up.
19:53Let's just have a look what this does.
19:55And it puts him to the top with a 32.85.
19:57Only four hundredths of a second.
19:58But Winkup's coming because he's on his best second sector also.
20:03Tony D'Alberto inside the top five.
20:05But here comes Jamie Winkup.
20:07David Wall's putting together another good lap.
20:09And he goes to third.
20:11Excellent performance from Wall.
20:13What has Winkup got in the final sector?
20:15He's got the green box in the second sector.
20:17Fabian Coulthard is lightning quick to the second sector.
20:21As Jamie now does a 1.32.7.
20:24Under 30 seconds to go in qualifying.
20:26Look out for Coulthard.
20:28The Kiwi is in blistering form.
20:31Alex Premra up into fifth with a great timer.
20:3333.55.
20:34Rick Kelly, great job also.
20:3633.55.
20:37Will Davison now.
20:4033.1 up to fourth.
20:41Here comes the Lockwood racer.
20:43And he goes into first at 1.32.5.
20:46Great job.
20:47And he gives back at sixth.
20:51That's a great time.
20:53That shaved a big chunk of time off the best we saw from Lowndes yesterday at a 1.32.9.
20:58So Coulthard, who's enjoyed a poll this year.
21:02He's got a margin of 0.14.
21:04There are still those to finish their laps.
21:05That was Winterbottom.
21:06He just jumped into sixth position then.
21:08So Coulthard, Winkup, Lowndes, Wall.
21:11That's an outstanding performance.
21:12He lost the first session.
21:13The first session.
21:14That'll be a career best for him without even referring to the paperwork.
21:17And he lost the first session yesterday to an oil pressure sensor problem.
21:23And then the car wouldn't start.
21:24I mean, it was just one of those things.
21:25You travel halfway around the world.
21:27You've been talking up what's going on.
21:29You jump in your race car and it all goes wrong from the very first moment.
21:33And that can be very frustrating.
21:34So to recover from that.
21:35To find the right settings in the car through practice.
21:38And put that job together in qualifying is a great effort.
21:41Well done.
21:42He was heading towards a top five qualifier in WA before it all went wrong for him.
21:47David Wall.
21:48And now, as you mentioned, career best.
21:50His best before this was tenth.
21:52Rick Kelly just jumped up to ninth with that last lap.
21:5533.47.
21:56That's a very, very good job.
21:58That's an outstanding effort for Rick Kelly.
22:00James Moffat's probably been the fastest so far this year of the Nissan competitors.
22:04And Rick Kelly.
22:05Very, very good lap time.
22:11Winker.
22:12Starting from the front row.
22:14He's had enormous success.
22:15He's won nine out of the 21 poles.
22:18We've been racing overseas in the last five years.
22:21But this one goes to a Kiwi.
22:22Fabian Coulthard.
22:23Hey, Brad Jones.
22:25Just going through the timing at the moment.
22:27Congratulations, mate.
22:28What a fantastic season this is shaping up to be.
22:30And to get a result like that here is brilliant.
22:32Well, it's great.
22:33It really is.
22:34And to have David Wall up there in the Wilson car in the top five.
22:36It just shows you, you know, what a lot of hard work can do.
22:39The guys have really put the hard yards in.
22:41And for Fabian with the Logwood car, he struggled a little bit in Perth.
22:44But they really feel like they're back on top.
22:46And, you know, it's really good to be able to come to an event.
22:49Look forward to being fighting for pole position.
22:52And hopefully we'll be in the race for the win tomorrow.
22:54Brad, Bridie's just come in behind us here.
22:56But a tougher day for him.
22:58Well, I'm not too sure what's going on.
22:59They struggled with the car a lot yesterday.
23:01And they felt that maybe something was broken.
23:03And, you know, we had a problem with an anti-roll bar in Perth at the end of the race.
23:07And so, really, they're not too sure what's going on.
23:10But we're going to get onto that.
23:12And hopefully we can sort it out a little bit better.
23:14He looked like it was going to be better on his last run.
23:16And he made a mistake on one of the laps.
23:18And, really, when there's two minutes left in the session, you don't have much choice.
23:21So...
23:22I'll let you go and enjoy the success of Fabian too.
23:24Okay, thanks very much.
23:25So Fabian Kultar gets his second career V8 Supercar pole
23:30and becomes the first man to start from P1 for the V8 Supercars in America.
23:35A piece of history for Lockwood Racing's Fabian Kultar becoming the first man to claim pole position for the V8 Supercars here at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
23:53And also a piece of history for Holden becoming the first manufacturer to rack up 250 pole positions in the Australian Touring Car Championship or V8 Supercars.
24:04First pole came way back in 1973 when Peter Brock took P1 at Simmons Plains in Tasmania.
24:13Yeah, that's a great milestone.
24:15So congratulations to all at Holden.
24:18Been continuous investors in Australian, Australasian motorsport for a long period of time, so that's a great reward.
24:26So a lot of work being done here as everybody makes a little tweak to their car to try and make sure they get the most out of it in these back-to-back qualifying sessions.
24:33It's a real task for the drivers and for the engineers because if they're not happy with the cars, there's no reaction time.
24:40And there's a limited number of things that you're able to do in that tiny time window because clearly you can't take the garage into the garage and start pulling a hundred things apart.
24:48Yeah, Neil, that's an important pick-up you make there, mate.
24:53There's actually teams that have sacrificed some of this session now to get the changes to their cars completed, which is most unusual.
25:00Everyone's usually ready to blaze out at the start of the session, but they've realised that even getting one good set of tyres on the car, one good run with the car tuned is better than blazing around for the whole session.
25:12We just had a shot on screen there of Scott Pyre a moment ago, who's been in the wars the last two outings with that incident that we saw at the top of our program in our opener in Tasmania, followed by a big one in Western Australia.
25:21He wasn't with us in the New Zealand round, bumped him last night in the driver of autograph session, and he said, I just want to have a nice, quiet weekend and grab some points.
25:30He was very quick in Adelaide, has been quick here so far. They didn't have as much damage on that car after Western Australia as they thought they may have.
25:37I spoke to Paul Morris about it and he said it was relatively simple to get the car back in good shape. So that was good news for those guys.
25:45So remember this is qualifying now for race 14, our second race of the afternoon later on.
25:51There's Scott Pyre, the Ecole team continuously working away on the track.
25:55We saw before Shane Van Gisbergen and Jonathan Webb, the Techno Autosports teammates, both of them inside the top ten in that last qualifying session.
26:05Highlighted by Jonathan Webb sixth and the Giz in ninth.
26:10He's Murrow Engel, the SP Tools Mercedes-Benz AMG.
26:16He's 63.
26:18He was 22nd in qualifying in our previous qualifying for race number four there.
26:24He was the lead.
26:26Mercedes.
26:27A little later on today in our coverage, boys, you'll see Murrow Engel tackling horse riding.
26:34No.
26:35And I mean tackling.
26:36Right.
26:37With Jason Bright.
26:38Right.
26:39So they went out to a ranch, they had a great time.
26:41Actually it wasn't too bad, but some pretty funny stuff.
26:43Hello to all our friends in Mansfield.
26:44Because the boys from the high country shouldn't be worried about having their jobs taken over.
26:49If those guys were left for the job, it wouldn't be how the West was won.
26:59That's right.
27:00Well we've thrown a German who lives in Monaco, now based on the Gold Coast, onto a horse in the back of Texas.
27:08Sending through the Colorado River.
27:12Will Davison also plays guest reporter a little later on for us.
27:16He goes to the Salt Lake Barbecue.
27:18The famous barbecue store.
27:20It's awesome.
27:21They've managed to find some time to go racing too.
27:23It's incredible.
27:24Will Davison's just punched out a 1 minute 33.4.
27:27That's a good time.
27:29He did a 33.1 in the previous session.
27:32So that's a good way to get started.
27:34That's probably the same set of tyres to get the car warmed up.
27:37Another go mate.
27:38You want to back it off.
27:39Another go.
27:40You can hear them on the radio in the background.
27:41So they're using this as a sighting opportunity to make a little tweaked.
27:44Yeah sorry about that.
27:45Lowndes is on a fast sector split but he's now backed away from it.
27:47So he's made a mistake there just at the end of sector one.
27:50And Jeremy Moore said to him back it off he can still go again.
27:54And you heard the apologies from Lowndes back.
27:57That was the fastest first sector we've seen all weekend.
28:00So that's a big mistake for Lowndes because you will have taken the goodness, that's a word,
28:06out of those tyres.
28:07The quality of it.
28:09Sorry Matthew.
28:10Don't look at me like that.
28:11This is a massive moment here for Lowndes.
28:13This is down at turn 10 into 11.
28:15Look at this.
28:16Well he did the same thing remember in practice.
28:19He got clipped by that kerb on the right.
28:21He ends up on the one on the left and in practice this really threw him about.
28:26I mean this is almost a carbon copy of what happened to Lowndes yesterday.
28:30The bottom line to it is it's massively slow.
28:32It looks fantastic but it's not going to give him the yield that he needs.
28:35He had it all crossed up and didn't get the line that he wanted.
28:37Webb by the way has just punched a 33-0 Jonathan Webb in the Daryl Lee entry.
28:42So Lowndes is going again now on the run into turn one and Craig didn't need the information
28:48to come up on the digital dashboard to tell him that he needed to abort that lap and start again.
28:52So currently the Techno car is looking pretty strong.
28:55So Webb position one, Shane Van Gisburgh in position two.
28:59We're watching Lowndes here at the moment in recovery.
29:02In the meantime Dave Reynolds just had his lap deleted so he's obviously used four wheels over the line.
29:10This is the area that we saw the drama for Lowndes on the previous lap.
29:14Now what's interesting there folks is when you see that in real time versus the super slow-mo
29:19it shows you how little time you have to decide where you want to place the car.
29:23So when you saw that car blaze through there there's no time to react.
29:27You've either got to get the trajectory just right or you don't.
29:30And the difference in the first sector for it was a 26.9 versus a 27.1.
29:34So Lowndes is two tenths out but Winkup is on a flyer.
29:38The fastest so far to the second sector.
29:40Well he's posting a lap similar to the one that Fabian Coulthard did to claim pole earlier.
29:47Let's see what Jamie Winkup posts. This is a 1.32.03.
29:52Great job. That's best.
29:54That's three tenths of a second quicker.
29:56Yes, and in terms of what the Coulthard lap was, it was 52.59.
30:02Significantly faster than anyone else that's gone all weekend.
30:05Almost into the 31s.
30:08Lowndes, second.
30:10That's a great job by Winkup.
30:14And with a three quarters of a second margin over his teammate Craig Lowndes.
30:18I'm curious to see whether anybody can respond to that.
30:20That must have been a very, very good lap at point.
30:22I'll bet he was hungry when he was across some of those curbs in doing it.
30:26Alex Premmer did a great job all weekend, or has done a great job all weekend.
30:32He was eleventh in the previous session.
30:37We're on board there to see how he finishes this one.
30:42So Winkup with a 32.03.
30:45And Premmer jumps to fourth.
30:47Good job.
30:4833.13.
30:49And Pye, Poulthard and Holdsworth yet to record times.
30:55So Jamie Winkup was on the front row of the grid in our previous qualifying session.
31:01Right now he heads up the list with a super quick time.
31:10Second qualifying session of the day reaches the five and a half minute mark to go.
31:15The big question here will be, can anybody lower the time of Jamie Winkup?
31:20132.03 is super quick.
31:23The quickest we've seen a V8 supercar around this track.
31:27So you've got to go into the 131s to beat him.
31:29It's going to be a tough ask with under five minutes to go.
31:32So everybody's now done a time, but several of them are not representative at all.
31:36Holdsworth's done a 39.
31:38Todd Kelly's done a 1 minute 42.
31:40David Reynolds has done a 1 minute 43.
31:42But everybody has now gone out.
31:44And they'll have had a look, perhaps in many cases,
31:47a little fiddle with the car as we heard Mark Larkin talking about before.
31:51Get onto another tyre set now and try and punch out a number.
31:55But the job that Jamie Winkup has done is going to be very difficult
31:58to climb over at a 1 minute 32.0.
32:01That'll be pretty close to the target reference, I reckon.
32:04That'll be about it.
32:05Absolutely.
32:06And Scott McLaughlin we're on board there with.
32:08That's his fastest second sector.
32:11The 4-3-7.
32:14That's about eight tenths of a second away from the Winkup time.
32:19So at the moment it's going to probably put him up into somewhere like sixth or seventh.
32:23Rick Kelly's currently seventh.
32:25So Winkup, Lowndes, Webb, Premmer, Van Gisburgh and Will Davison, Rick Kelly, David Wall again.
32:31A great job.
32:32Michael Caruso and McLaughlin up into fourth.
32:34Great job.
32:3533-1-1.
32:36And Scott Hill just down here looking at our pole centre.
32:39Still sitting down here on the tarmac with a new set of rubber ready to go.
32:42And if you look on his steering wheel, Dave, I don't know if you can see around there.
32:46He's been, rather than using the little tablet they do, he's got a map on his steering wheel.
32:50They've been going corner by corner.
32:52Looking at the...
32:53Look, there's Mark Dutton, his engineer, coming in there.
32:55Corner by corner.
32:56This is a very complex place.
32:57It'll be interesting to see if they go back out again.
32:59Fabian Coulthard, I think, had a run on old tyres.
33:03Only punched out a number good enough for position 18.
33:06And there's Tony Delberto on screen.
33:08So Fabian did one minute 34.4.
33:10We saw him peel off just as we came back from the break.
33:14So watch out also for Coulthard.
33:16Because remember, he grabbed pole position for race 13 only a few moments ago.
33:20And that was a 32.5.
33:21So his has been the best time other than what we just saw Jamie Winkup achieve.
33:27It's the best time that we've had other than that.
33:29So it's even better than the time that Craig Lowndes has done in this session.
33:32So the question for me here is whether or not there's anything left in that Lockwood car,
33:36adjustment-wise and in the driver, to be able to match that 32 flat that Winkup's done.
33:42Delberto's on a pretty good lap here.
33:44This might put him into sort of sixth or seventh based on where he is.
33:49That's seventh.
33:50Delberto, 33.3.
33:51Good job.
33:52We've been having endless niggling steering problems with that car that date back several race meetings.
33:57And it was a problem again for them yesterday, Tony Delberto.
33:59But it looks like this circuit is well suited to the car.
34:03Remember, it's part of the Winkup Show racing style in terms of the engineering.
34:06Up to third for Scott McLaughlin.
34:08Great job, buddy. Awesome.
34:09So just call it down, bring it in, and we'll just sit and wait.
34:12It's obviously a few guys out and race MP3 at the moment.
34:15Really good job, mate.
34:16Detailed what a likeable guy he is and how well he's done in the category.
34:20Scott McLaughlin, youngest ever V8 supercar race winner.
34:23But he's so young that when you come to the United States and you get to the end of a long, hard work day and you think,
34:29well, I might have a beer.
34:30He can't because he's 19.
34:32He's too young.
34:33So he hasn't got time to enjoy it here either.
34:36He's got to get back to New Zealand next weekend for a New Zealand supertouring race.
34:39But it's his first visit to the US and that's a great way to open your account.
34:42And if he stays where he is in third, it will be a career best qualifying effort for Scott McLaughlin.
34:48We haven't mentioned the qualifying performance so far of Garth Tander coming off the back of WA.
34:54So he's qualified inside the top 10 and 8th for the first race this afternoon.
34:59And currently he's in 12th.
35:01Oh, off the road on.
35:03WA qualifying boys, Garth was outside the top 15 for all three races.
35:09Hadn't happened since the very first weekend of his career.
35:11And he was off the road critically there at turn 19, which may well see that time deleted.
35:16There's a judge of fact down there as well at race control.
35:19It's very sophisticated apparatus in race control at the fingertips of all of our officials here.
35:26It was built for Formula One in the first instance.
35:28So they've got cameras in all the critical locations around here so they can see any transgression as well.
35:34Rick Kelly, 32.9, up into third position.
35:37That is a fantastic lap time.
35:39Todd Kelly popped into the top 10.
35:41His brother has just gone to P3.
35:44Shane van Gisbergen.
35:46Look at the attitude on that car.
35:48Fantastic watching him slide through the fast right-hander.
35:51He's got two corners to run now on this lap.
35:53Pipsal 500 winner for 2013.
35:56Been a bit quiet since then, the guys in Techno.
35:59They thought they'd lost an engine yesterday with Jonathan Webb's car,
36:02but it turned out, as Mark pointed out in the highlights earlier, to be just an oil line.
36:06Thankfully, van Gisbergen P3.
36:08One minute, 32.6.
36:09He's already been displaced.
36:10There's the answer to the question regarding Coulthard.
36:13He's just popped into position three.
36:15So, Wind Cup, Lowndes, Coulthard van Gisbergen.
36:19Mark Winterbottom, 27th goes to 9th.
36:24He was the first guy to visit the venue mid-year last year, Mark Winterbottom.
36:28And off the road, Jonathan Webb on the AstroTurf there.
36:31Very little grip.
36:32New livery this weekend and new backing from Destination New South Wales.
36:36A tourism group representing the state of New South Wales in Australia.
36:45Make sure he's watching his mirrors.
36:47So, Adrian Burgess there, good call, saying to Mark Dutton,
36:50make sure he's watching his mirrors.
36:51They don't want to cop a penalty when you're on provisional pole
36:54for celebrating the lap time that he achieves and being in anybody's way
36:59and then copping the penalty for balking.
37:01Will Davison here.
37:03He's going to go to the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500
37:07on the Memorial Day weekend and support his pal, Wilton Howell.
37:10They draw up together.
37:14He loves the place.
37:16Had a great run yesterday and practice.
37:18Took a little while to settle the car down,
37:20but he's enjoying the racetrack.
37:21What's he got here in reserve?
37:23Two corners to run.
37:25Just like his teammate, he's got a long way ahead of him
37:29to go up the list in the last throw of the dice.
37:32Because Will is currently 18th and he moves up to 7th.
37:37A good effort inside the top 10.
37:39Two forward performance racing.
37:42Falcons throw it down in the last lap.
37:46So I think that's the best qualifying that we've seen from the Nissan Alderman
37:50with Rick Kelly in position six.
37:51So that's certainly something to cheer about for those guys.
37:54But it's a Holden pole.
37:55Another.
37:56And it's Wincup and Lowndes.
37:58Red Bull Racing Australia one and two.
38:00Fabian Coulthard Lockwood Racing.
38:01Next from Shane Van Gisbergen and Jonathan Webb.
38:03The teammates, but different colours.
38:06Rick Kelly, Will Davis and Alex Premis.
38:08Scotty McLaughlin and David Wall.
38:10Just displaced a moment ago by James Moffat, by the way.
38:13So Moffat just snuck into the top 10 in the Norton entry.
38:17Great performance.
38:18So two qualifying sessions ticked off.
38:31Defending series champ has success both at home and away.
38:35Jamie Wincup now has six poles for 2013.
38:39That's the 10th pole position that he has claimed when we have gone offshore racing.
38:44So it's an all Red Bull Racing Australia front row.
38:47A thousand bucks in the can for Wincup.
38:50We will start from P1 for our second race this afternoon.
38:55Well, Jamie Wincup, well done in qualifying.
38:56You didn't just beat him out of the other spots, but you smashed him.
38:59Great time.
39:00Oh, thank you.
39:01I think everyone's still getting up to speed on the track.
39:03First run, yeah, was pretty untidy, which most people are on a brand new circuit.
39:08So happy to get a pretty clean lap in the second run.
39:10Obviously both cars are extremely quick and happy to be starting up the front.
39:13And Lowndes, you're there once again.
39:15Well done.
39:16Yeah, thanks, Brits.
39:17I think that's, as Jamie said, we're still learning and developing the car as well as
39:20us learning the track.
39:21So it's a great track.
39:22It's fantastic.
39:23I said to you yesterday that it's like a roller coaster up through one and out of two.
39:27So it's going to be a lot of fun.
39:29You guys having a great time.
39:30Enjoy it up the front of the grid.
39:31Well done.
39:32Thanks, Brits.
39:33It's hot.
39:34It's hot.
39:35Thanks.
39:36Well, Rick Kelly, it looks like the Nissans have really finally arrived, mate.
39:38Position six yourself.
39:39But overall, all weekend the cars have been strong here.
39:42Yeah, thank you.
39:43We're very excited.
39:44I mean, that's a big plus for us and a big step forward.
39:47The track's fantastic.
39:48It's only, what, a minute 30, a minute and a half, and there's 20 corners on it.
39:52So it's quite dense as far as corners go.
39:54And for us, the JD Altima handles really well around all the corners.
39:58And we saw that a lot in New Zealand and other tracks.
40:00So when we saw this, we were pretty excited.
40:02And there's a chute here that we're losing a little bit of speed up, the straight.
40:05But beyond that, it feels great.
40:07So we're all very excited as well, mate.
40:09So good luck.
40:11Cheers.
40:14Thanks.
40:15Shakit Tama.
40:16of course, born and built in the US.
40:17Rick Kelly to start from six now.
40:19Our mates at Shannon's, want you to experience the US.
40:21Also a 16 day, fully escorted, self-drive tour for two in a Ford Mustang convertible down
40:28the West Coast.
40:29Also includes a VIP entry to the exclusive Concourse De Elegance event at Pebble Beach,
40:32tickets to the Gooding Classic auction and Laguna Saika Classic as well.
40:36All you've got to do, just go to shannons.com.au forward slash Pebble Beach
40:41or call 13 46 46 and get a quote.
40:44This David Reynolds hasn't had a great time in qualifying
40:47on 19th and 15th for the Bottolo Ford Pilot,
40:50but he's had a fun time here in Austin.
40:52Wait until you see what Davey gets up to when we send him out shopping.
40:56But after this, it's race time.
41:06Let's go.