Stone Brothers Racing completes final testing
5/9/2004 23:13 (Press Release) -
Stone Brothers Racing completed their final “on-track” preparations for this year’s V8 Supercar endurance events with a full-day test at Queensland Raceway today.
At the end of the day it was also confirmed that defending series champion Marcos Ambrose would be joined by Greg Ritter in the Pirtek Falcon and that two-time Bathurst winner Russell Ingall would be partnered by Cameron McLean in the Caltex Havoline Ford for the long distance events.
The pairings have been confirmed for the Betta Electrical Sandown 500 in Melbourne on September 10-12 and for the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst on October 7-10.
The test day was conducted in dry 22-degree temperatures and resulted in more than eight hours of trouble-free testing.
The team bedded in several components during the session with the Caltex Havoline Falcon completing about 140 laps and the Pirtek Ford about 120.
The day also provided an ideal opportunity for the team to practice driver and brake-pad changes. Both endurance events have a compulsory pad change.
Co-owner of SBR, Ross Stone, said that the test was very positive and a great lead-up to the Sandown event which returned as the traditional warm-up to Bathurst last year.
Stone also said that while there had been plenty of speculation, an absolute final decision on driver combinations was not made until today.
“I think both driver combinations are very strong,” said Stone.
“Both Greg and Cameron have plenty of experience and understand the job they have to do.
“They have been professional in every aspect during their time with the team and have fitted in well.
“If our preparation remains on course, I think we will be going to both Sandown and Bathurst with two cars well and truly in the hunt.”.
McLean has run consistently in this year’s Konica Minolta Series and was seventh outright in the title chase after last weekend’s final round.
Ritter had a strong preparation for the endurance events when he won the final Konica round at Mallala – his first race of the season.
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