After finishing 18th overall in Practice at the Chill Perth 360, Casey Stoner didn’t sound confident for the Dunlop Series’ first race in the West tomorrow.
The two-time MotoGP Champion had his first outing at a traditional circuit – after contesting the Clipsal 500, Adelaide’s demanding street circuit – in his Red Bull Racing Holden Commodore. But the exercise didn’t prove as successful as he would have liked, with Stoner ending up off the track in the second session.
“We’re not overly optimistic for tomorrow,” Stoner said.
“I think we’ve got almost too much work ahead of us. A session which we should have spent fine-tuning ourselves on the track we spent trying to get back to where we were in the first session.
“Tomorrow we’re going to have to try a lot of things in Qualifying, try and get our pace up a little bit so we can qualify a bit better and see what we can do for the race.
“It’s not been the easiest day. We’ve got a lot more changes to do and we needed those few laps in the afternoon that were unfortunately taken away from us.”
Stoner felt the first session wasn’t too bad and gave him the chance to learn the track and settle into the car. But the second session – when he finished 15th – the team went the wrong way with car set-up, when they were expecting to improve.
“We struggled a little but and then put ourselves on the backfoot by running off at the end of the session,” Stoner said. “And after that, we back out with a better set-up to try but unfortunately we only got half a lap done before the session ended with a red flag.
“That really put a damper on our day and made things difficult for us.”
GB Galvanizing/Wilson Security’s Dale Wood topped the combined times, followed by Daniel Gaunt, Steve Owen, Geoff Emery and Taz Douglas.
Chaz Mostert leads the points tally after the one event at Adelaide – however with his recent elevation to the main series, it’s Ash Walsh in second who is the one to watch.
Tomorrow the Dunlop Series will qualify at 8.30am as well as completing Race One.
