Photo: V8Central

Owen outshines at Clipsal

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Just as in the V8Supercars, one driver, Steve Owen, dominated the two Fujitsu V8 Supercar races at the Clipsal 500.
Owen was to make this a one-off appearance for Tint-A-Car Racing, winning both races with ease from fellow main series refugee Jack Perkins in his Mack sponsored Falcon, and former Jack Daniel’s racer Dale Wood.

Another refugee from the main series, Dean Canto was the weekend’s early pacesetter, putting his Howard Racing Falcon on the pole, lead away from the lights in race one.

Canto’s Falcon succumbed to fuel pressure problems early on putting him out of the race.

Once Owen passed the stricken car he just drove away from the field until the race was stopped 8 laps early due to the carnage left by the Ashley Cooper crash in turn 8.

“This is the next best thing [to being in the main series],” said Owen to eNews. “I was reluctant to do this because I had sort of lost my motivation, but it was good to be out there.”

Aside from Canto, Perkins was the only driver able to match Owens’s times throughout the weekend. But any chance of mounting a Race 2 attack was essentially
lost when Wood beat him to Turn 1 at the start, delaying the driver sufficiently to let Owen get away.

Wood’s weekend was just as straightforward. He was fourth in the first race behind
Tim Slade, and promoted a spot in the second when Slade found the wall on the first lap.

Behind the leaders there were stunning debuts for both Michael Trimble and Karl Reindler. Trimble was fifth for the weekend in the Marty Brant-prepped Commodore, a result that was highlighted with fourth in Race 2. Reindler had actually led Trimble at the start of Race 2, but lost several spots when Matthew White spun inside him on the third lap. Still, eighth was a solid result on debut for the Howard squad.

David Reynolds was a prerace favourite who didn’t have a great outing. Having qualified just 18th thanks to the intermittent weather, Reynolds spun on the first lap of the first race, and finished just 17th.

He recovered to ninth in the second outing, and may have been higher had the race not been shortened.