Steve Owen in a Triple Eight Commodore during a co-driver session earlier this year.
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By Briar Gunther 4:38 PM Thu 15 July, 2010
Source: BigPond Sport
Steve Owen is confident he will not repeat the mistake he made at Townsville last weekend in the upcoming enduros.
Owen will play an important part in the L&H 500 and Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 races by teaming up with reigning V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup.
At the Sucrogen Townsville 400, Owen spun then-leader David Russell in the last of the Fujitsu Series’ three races.
Owen admitted fault, saying he could not stop in time and likened the incident to Mark Webber’s crash into Heikki Kovalainen at last months’ Formula One European Grand Prix.
“It’s like Webber’s accident – you can say someone broke early or whatever happened but at the end of the day it’s the bloke behind’s fault for crashing into someone,” he said.
“It was my mistake and there’s not much I can do about it now.”
When asked if he was concerned of making a similar mistake in the enduros, Owen replied: “not at all”.
He said the crash occurred partly because the set-ups on the cars were so different and he had the ability to brake later.
“The main series the cars are all very similar; there’s probably only three guys that make cars these days and so you look at the lap times and they are all very similar in the main series,” he said.
“I think that’s probably one feature of why (the crash) happened but at the end of the day it’s still my fault.
“If that’s the one mistake I make for the year, then hopefully I’ve already had it.”
Owen, like the other co-drivers, is now preparing for the enduros and is confident
“I’ve done Bathurst before so I’ve done the miles,” he said.
“We’ve got three or four test days lined up; Triple Eight tend to save them until just before the enduros.
“So by the time you get to Bathurst there’ll be plenty of miles (under the belt) and obviously I’m doing the Fujitsu Series at Bathurst as well.
“By the time I jump in the car on race day I’ll have done a fair few miles.”
Meanwhile, V8 Supercars Championship leader James Courtney has acknowledged that the Whincup/Owen combination will be a strong one at the endurance races.
“He’s (Whincup) got a great co-driver in Steve Owen and he’s going to be pushing quite hard,” the Jim Beam Racing driver noted.
