IN THE COCKPIT: Lee Holdsworth, Perth V8s

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IN THE COCKPIT: Lee Holdsworth, Perth V8s

On the Sunday morning I had my best qualifying session of the season, starting the second race in fourth and the race was a good one.

Lee Holdsworth | Posted May 07, 2012

Lee Holdsworth's fast and steady first season with Stone Brothers Racing has the IRWIN Ford sitting fifth in points. (Photo: IRWIN RACING)

We all love racing in Western Australia, it’s just that it’s a long way from home. When the transporter leaves the IRWIN Racing HQ it’s a four day drive to get there, then you race, then there is a four day drive back, so the equipment is on the road for about ten total days.

Barbagallo Raceway is only short, about 2.4 kilometres short actually, but it’s a great little track. The braking zone coming onto the front straight (turn 7) is one of the best in Australia; it’s like the braking zone coming into ‘The Chase’ at Bathurst. It’s deceiving because you approach it coming down hill but at the end it actually starts coming back up hill.

Most of the retardation of the car is done half-way through that turn-in point. You feel like you're not going to pull the car up then all of a sudden the car stops very quickly. If you get it wrong you end up in the sand trap and stuck in the gravel. Also, the kerb on the inside is very harsh, so you don’t want to hit that one, but you want to open up the exit as much as you can. Get it wrong and you can do some damage to the car, it’s a difficult corner.

Barbagallo has just gone through an upgrade. The old pit garages and pit lane were pretty antiquated. You would have to drive the car through the crowd to get to the temporary pit lane tents, then after the session you’d drive them through the crowd to return to the garage.

They moved the new pit facilities to the centre of the track, requiring a new pit entry and pit exit. They did a first class job building the team garages and should be proud of what has been produced. Western Australians will get to use these facilities right throughout the year, so it’s great for local racing.

Turn seven, apart from being a challenge is also the best place on the track to overtake. What has complicated this corner is the new pit lane entry just after the exit out of turn seven. The cars naturally veer left as we turn right onto the straight. If you approach the turn side-by-side with another car and the car on the outside line wants to pit, then it has now become a little more difficult. That car has to cross over the track to enter the pits. What it means is that if you are fighting for position, you need to back off if the pit lane is where you need to go. You need to position yourself well before the corner so as not to be squeezed out by other cars.

The redesign also made it more interesting on the pit lane exit. When you exit the pits you are on the inside line after turn one jostling for position with cars that might not have pitted. There was potential for some argy bargy, but we kept it clean.

Barbagallo is one of those tracks were you leave the speed up to the car because the grip level isn’t very high. It hasn’t been resurfaced for a while so it’s very abrasive, the harder you push the quicker the speed goes away. So it’s one of those tracks where you have to let the speed come to you and tune the car to run consistent lap times.

It means there needs to be a bit of give and take between a qualifying set up and the race set up. You obviously want to have a car that can score pole, but it then needs to finish the job and win the race. To have a good race car you need to tune your car to the tyres, but there can be a trade off; put all your eggs in one basket and you’ll be quick in qualifying but nowhere in the race. The speed that the tyres go off at is unbelievable; it’s about being able to conserve your tyres. It's a good little track to drive but you can’t attack it.

We had three 50 lap races last weekend, one on Saturday and two on Sunday where we had to use a combination of hard and soft compound tyres, the softs being quite a bit faster.

We were nowhere on Friday in the rain, it was wet all day and we struggled. On Saturday we put it together. We qualified 10th and finished fourth, my best result of the year.

The IRWIN Tools Ford definitely had better pace than I’d ever experienced in Perth before. Unfortunately there was a little too much understeer mid-corner to catch the car in front of me and snag a podium.

On the Sunday morning I had my best qualifying session of the season, starting the second race in fourth. The race was a good one; I stayed in fourth for the majority of the race, dropping to fifth with two laps to go. The tyres were shagged and I knew it was going to be a struggle to hold onto fourth, but it was another top five, so I couldn’t be too bummed off.

The last race I won’t comment on, we didn’t have the speed and then we got done over during a safety car period, but what a finish! Three cars almost side by side into the last corner, in the end separated by nothing, it was great to watch the replay.

Overall it’s great to have even more confidence in the IRWIN Tools Ford and to go to a race meet with a goal and leave having achieved it.

Till next time.

Lee Holdsworth

*Note: Barbagallo Raceway is Western Australia’s most used race track. It is situated about 40 minutes out of Perth, which is the capital of the state.

Lee Holdsworth is one of the emerging stars of Australian V8 Supercars racing. After six seasons driving for General Motors, he has moved camps and will drive the IRWIN Tools Ford in 2012. Known as one of the most talented drivers down pit lane, most believe he is a V8 Supercars champion in the making. Learn more about Lee and the IRWIN team at www.irwinracing.com.au.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lee Holdsworth

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