A BITTERSWEET BATHURST 1000 FOR PENRITE RACING

Sunday, October 9 – 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000

It was a day of ups and downs at Mount Panorama for Penrite Racing with a steady sixth place and a heart-breaking DNF in an eventful Bathurst 1000, today.

 

RACE WRAP

Lee Holdsworth roared off the line and into the lead on lap 1 before chaos ensued on mountain straight with Jamie Whincup and Will Brown spinning in the path of the field with Matt Campbell managing to incredibly avoid any car damage behind them.

However, on lap 5 Campbell’s luck ran out when Zane Goddard dangerously re-joined the track at The Chase, straight into the path of Campbell, causing a high speed crash and a heart-breaking end to the day of the Reynolds/Campbell duo in car 26.

Out in front, Holdsworth was showing no signs of old age as he set the pace in lead of the race in an impressive opening stint in his last Bathurst 1000 before retirement.

Rain graced the bottom of the circuit on lap 16 as Holdsworth took the opportunity to pit and handover to Bathurst rookie Matt Payne for his first laps in anger at Mt Panorama.

Payne executed a sound double stint while mixing it with Supercars big names of Shane Van Gisbergen, Chaz Mostert, Garth Tander and Cam Waters before pitting on lap 58.

In a heavily safety car affected opening to the race, pit lane traffic caused car 10 to drift back to P10 before Holdsworth went on the charge back up to P4 before Payne jumped in for his final shift of the day.

Payne showed maturity beyond his years to hand the sole remaining Penrite Mustang back in one piece with 60 laps to go for Holdsworth to triple stint to the end of the race.

From here Leethal Lee pushed the limits as passed Triple 8’s Broc Feeney to get up into the top 5 before dropping to P7 after pushing too hard at Hell Corner. Will Davison’s crash at Penrite corner with 19 laps to go, gave car 10 the chance to make his last pit stop of the day which the Penrite Racing crew executed to perfection.

Holdsworth pressed Feeney all the way to the finish line line but to no avail, sealing sixth position on a bittersweet day for the team.

DRIVER COMMENTS

Car #10 Driver Lee Holdsworth, said: “Overall it was a hard day for us but I’m happy with a P6. I would have loved a top 5 finish but the dry conditions didn’t play to our favour.”

“I got a good jump off the front row and I really enjoyed getting out into the lead early.

“As we got further into the race we just didn’t have the package to stay with the leaders on the straights and it staying dry meant everything in the car started to over heat which wasn’t ideal.

“Matt Payne did a fantastic job today, in his first Bathurst he didn’t make any errors and handed the car back to me in one piece.”

Car #10 co-driver Matt Payne, said: “I was very excited this morning but I tried to just simplify my role out there today to give Lee a shot at the end so I’m happy I was able to do that.”

“Our car was down on speed on the straights so it was tough to make any ground on the lead bunch.

“I’m happy to finish the race in P6, I can’t wait to come back here next year.”