Success at the island : Pedders Proton

Success at the Island

Pedders Racing has fought hard to take out victory in class E of the Australian Manufacturers Championship at Phillip Island this weekend. With tough competition from Maddison Gray and Samantha Bennett in their Toyota Echo, Grant Phillips and Andrew Turpie were forced to work hard to keep ahead of the ladies.
Race 1 was held on Saturday afternoon in wet and difficult conditions which saw the Gray/Bennett team take full advantage of a poor tyre choice from the Pedders Team. Running a full set of medium compound tyres in what turned out to be a very wet track cost Phillips more than 30 seconds after his half of an hour session before handing the car over to Turpie.
“The rear of the car just wanted to overtake the front all of the time, conditions are tough out there and I just don’t know what more I could have done to try and stay in touch with the Toyota” said Phillips as he climbed out of the Bosch/PBR Sponsored car.
The drivers change saw the team’s first tyre changes during a race and they performed extremely well, adding just 7 seconds to the pit stop. With Gray/Bennett stopping at the same time the Pedders team were able to keep in touch with the ladies thanks to Phillips’ efforts coming into pit lane. “I was a long way behind Maddi coming into the pit lane entry but she slowed down well before the control line and I continued at full speed. I couldn’t believe my luck, all of the lost time was made up through the pit stop entry alone and it felt great to hand the car over in that position”, Phillips continued.
Bennett went out and turned the Toyota into a target for the Pedders/Valvoline Team, Turpie had to allow for cold tyres on the rear of the car so the first lap saw the girls lead by more than half of a minute. The change to soft compounds on the rear was a fantastic choice and after the second lap Turpie had taken six seconds out of their lead. Turpie drove like a man on a mission and with just 3 laps remaining in race 1 was able to take the lead in class and taking victory in race 1.
“It was tough work out there this afternoon” said Turpie, “The rain made the track slippery, especially coming down Lukey Heights and Sam made me work for every second to catch her, traffic and a great choice to change tyres all contributed allowing the team to take out race 1”, he continued.
Race 2 on Sunday afternoon saw the team go to battle in cold, windy conditions with just light showers. The Bartercard Sponsored team stayed with the same set up as from race 1 and gave Phillips some additional laps in the warm up session to build his confidence with the new tyre combination.
Phillips took the start of race 2 and was immediately swamped by the competition when a much faster class C car bogged down in their start and closed out Phillips’ option to go around the outside when the car moved across. Taking evasive action Phillips then went about getting in front of the Gray/Bennett entry and then building a lead. Samantha Bennett took the start in the Toyota Echo and never looked like threatening the lead of the Whiteline Flat Out Proton although she was able to claw back some time on several of the laps before the Pit Window opened.
The team took the opportunity to move where the drivers change was to take place, instead of out the front of their garage; they went further down pit lane thanks to one of the Touring Car Masters teams and performed their change away from the pandemonium that was unfolding in front of them. With limited space and too many cars coming in for their compulsory stop at the same time, one of the Pedders Extreme Class A cars was hit in the driver’s door causing significant damage and fortunately no-one was physically hurt.
Turpie took the drive from Phillips and maintained the lead they had over the Toyota Echo. Staying out of trouble and keeping the car on the track, Turpie was able to ensure victory in race 2 as well as taking the victory for the weekend in class E.
With fantastic racing and a massive team effort Pedders Racing can now take just over two months to prepare for their next racing at Queensland Raceway in Ipswich where our main competition will also be racing thanks to some negotiations between both the Pedders/Reliance Petroleum Team and the Gray/Bennett Toyota Echo team.
“We have had a great weekend racing with Sam and Maddi”, said Phillips “So it made sense to talk to their management and offer some support by taking their car and equipment in our transporter and helping to reduce some of the financial burden on them” he continued.
The team is excited about the night race at QR; it is going to be an amazing spectacle for the spectators, the teams and the drivers. The Shannon’s Nationals Series will be at Queensland Raceway from August 10 to 12 with the highlight of the weekend being the AMC night race on Saturday the 11th commencing at 6.30pm.