Wet weather caused havoc on the streets of Sydney today [Saturday] with all three SBR cars failing to finish the 74 lap race after making contact with the circuit’s unforgiving concrete walls. This morning’s qualifying session saw all three Falcons progress to the Top Ten Shootout but the unfortunate incidents in the race meant none were able to convert it onto a solid result, leaving the SBR crew with a long night of repairs ahead.

Alex Davison – Driver, IRWIN Racing Car #4

“We were looking good there for a while. I think pretty much everyone was running to a different strategy so it was always going to come to the final 20 laps before we knew where we were at. I just aquaplaned and couldn’t pull the car up and after I hit the wall I couldn’t get going again. I was on my way to pit lane to change to wet tyres but obviously we were one lap too late.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Driver, SP Tools Racing Car #9

“It’s pretty devastating when you look at the state the cars are in after we all started in the top 10. It just got too wet out there, Paul [Forgie] and I had been talking about whether to stay on slicks or change to wet tyres for a long time before the Safety Car came out for Ingall.

“Obviously we weren’t the only ones that fell victim to the rain, you had the three guys in the Championship hunt crash on the same lap as I did. If I could go back we would have definitely changed to wets at the final restart but you know what they say about hindsight.”

Tim Slade – Driver, Wilson Security Racing Car #47

“In the first stint I was getting held up a bit and getting frustrated and then made a mistake after going out on the dirty line on the straight. After that incident we were way back in the field and I think I probably drove too desperate to try and make up for it and then hit the wall again which meant the crew had to make repairs to get me back out there.

“When something in Murphy’s car let go I just slid on the fluid and hit the wall again and that was it.

“Making it into the Shootout was great but unfortunately it doesn’t mean much when you don’t turn it into good result in the race.”