The biggest challenge of the year arrives..

REVIEW: Karl Reindler Racing, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
V8 Supercars Rnd#20 (October 6-9)
10 October, 2011

After a frustrating start to the V8 Supercar endurance 'season' last month at Phillip Island, Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing's [FDSR] Karl Reindler and team-mate David Wall came into the iconic Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 full of anticipation with the knowledge that their Brad Jones Racing team historically have been one of the top performers at the annual classic.

"BJR always go well with race strategy [at Bathurst], they're prepared to take a risk when they need to, and they have a good understanding of timing in this race," Karl admitted pre-event.

Frustratingly for the three BJR cars (Reindler, Jason Bright and Jason Bargwanna), they, like their opponents, we forced to battle testing track conditions throughout both Thursday and Friday's sessions, with a damp circuit and at times, fog so thick that Thursday's final session was cancelled..

Karl circulated on old tyres through the wet opening session before handing over to Wall for session two, the sportscar and Development series driver turning in some solid laps on new tyres to finish the session 15th fastest.

Due to the ongoing inclement conditions, tyre supply too was becoming critical, with a number of teams forced to continue running on outdated rubber as tyre supplier Dunlop worked feverishly to resolve the issue. Sadly, the FDSR team were one of the teams who were forced to continue running the old tyres, frustrating Karl's efforts to find a good balance with the car.

"We were running around on tyres from the GP earlier this year and they'd degraded a lot, so I personally didn't gain much in my session," Karl admitted. "I know David started on the same tyres in his session and when he went to a green set he gained six seconds. Given that, I feel pretty good about my earlier times.

"I raced in the wet here in 2009 when I partnered Brighty. He put me out on slick tyres on a drying track so, compared to that, this is a walk in the park!!"

Friday's first session was for co-drivers, David turning in some strong laps on a drying track to be classified 13th,

Karl returned to the car for the final practice sessions to find a baseline setup for qualifying, the team working to dial out understeer, ultimately dropping Karl's quickest lap to a 2:09.37 on green tyres, and P21 ahead of qualifying.

Karl was full of anticipation and excitement ahead of one of the biggest qualifying sessions of the year, and with four sets of tyres at his disposal, was eager to press on and improve his practice pace. "You know you're alive when you're getting ready to qualify around here, that's for sure," he grinned prior to the session.

Set one [tyres] saw a best of 2:10.56, set two, no improvement, set three 2:09.40, again no improvement from the morning's session.

In the end Karl felt that as a group, the team might have been able to be a little more aggressive with their qualifying approach, as all three cars qualified between positions 18 and 27.. But qualifying isn't racing, and there was still 1000km ahead of them.

Some overnight suspension changes saw further improvement in the car during Saturday's practice session, but again the heavens opened midway through David's opening stint, reducing valuable dry running.

"The changes feel better, and the car had much better turn in and drive off the corners," David admitted afterwards.

By Sunday morning's early warmup session on a foggy, but dry track, both drivers admitted that the changes to the car had improved it dramatically and they felt it was the best it had been all weekend - now came the big test, 1000 kilometres of Mount Panorama!

Starting from P27, Karl made a strong start to take two cars before the close of the opening lap. By lap two he was the fifth fastest car through the final sector of the lap, but could feel the onset of understeer. As the opening stint continued, the understeer intensified causing 'snap' oversteer on exit, the team preparing to make a roll-centre adjustment during Karl's first stop.

Pitting from P19 on lap 24, Karl handed over to David for his first stint, moving back up to P22 before a stop during the Safety Car period for the drama with the ripple strips breaking up. Another roll-centre adjustment was made and David continued on for a double-stint behind the wheel.

By lap 63, David was back into the pits having moved into 13th position after passing team-mate Andy Jones in the Team BOC entry just prior to the stop. Fuel, tyres and another roll-centre adjustment and Karl was on his way having remained inside the top 15.

22 laps later Karl was back in having run consistently inside the top half of the field, swapping once again to David, as the team made a further roll-centre adjustment, now fine-tuning the setup as they worked towards the second half of the race.

"The car had too much oversteer during my session," Karl admitted, "it was probably the worst it has been all day, but the guys will keep working on it."

Another Safety Car period on lap 96 allowed the team to make a quick 'splash-and-go' for fuel, with the Lowndes/Skaife car released from its stop almost into the side of the Fair Dinkum Sheds entry, contact avoided at the last second.

Lap 112 saw Karl return to the wheel, the team making another roll-centre adjustment whilst also doing a pad change and fuel/tyres.

Karl rejoined in P16 and was quickly back for a top up of fuel within a few laps thanks to yet another Safety Car intervention. On lap 138 he was back again from P11 to refuel and take on four new tyres, rejoining the pack in P5 (immediately behind team-mate Bright) ahead of a final sprint to the line.

Karl held station on the restart despite intense pressure from Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes behind, before locking a tyre at the Chase on an oil spill which ultimately speared him off the circuit on the exit, dropping  a handful of positions in the process, Karl ultimately nursing the car to the line in 14th position with a badly flat-spotted front right.

"I had the pace on Russell Ingall in front of me after that last Safety Car but he was blocking a fair bit. Then I went through the Chase on lap 141 and there was no warning about the oil down. I locked up in a pretty big way and went off, and that flat-spotted the front-right tyre - I lost a good six or seven seconds - it was just a matter of looking after the tyres after that because I couldn't defend," Karl admitted with frustration.

"I really enjoyed that!" David said afterwards. "I loved the racing; it was nice and close. We were quite strong across the top of the mountain but it's hard to pass up there and we struggled for grip and drive off the slower corners.

"There were plenty of good things to take away from that race. From a personal perspective, I've had a lot to do with Allan Simonsen in sports car racing so it was good to get in front of him, even though he finished on the podium!

"All in all we should be pretty happy. Karl had a flat-spot at the end and, realistically, we probably only lost a couple of spots from where our pace should have placed us."

The Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing team now returns to their Albury BJR base to prepare the cars for the Armor All Gold Coast 600 in two weeks time (October 21-23) where Karl will again be paired with multiple European [and British] Touring Car Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA).

2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series - Race 20,
Supercheap Auto, Bathurst 1000, NSW (October 6-9, 2011)
1. Garth Tander/Nick Percat (Holden) - 161 laps
2. Craig Lowndes/Mark Skaife (Holden)
3. Greg Murphy/Allan Simonsen (Holden)
4. Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards (Ford)
5. Jason Bright/Andrew Jones (Holden)
6. Shane Van Gisbergen/John McIntyre (Ford)
7. James Courtney/Cameron McConville (Holden)
8. Russell Ingall/Jack Perkins (Holden)
9. Tony D'Alberto/Dale Wood (Ford)
10. Michael Caruso/Marcus Marshall (Holden)

14. Karl Reindler/David Wall (Fair Dinkum Sheds Holden Commodore) - 161 laps

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2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series (points after race 19)
1. Craig Lowndes (Holden) - 2329 points
2. Jamie Whincup (Holden) - 2229
3. Shane Van Gisbergen (Ford) - 1920
4. Garth Tander (Holden) - 1848
5. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) - 1687
6. Rick Kelly (Holden) - 1663
7. Will Davison (Ford) - 1646
8. Jason Bright (Holden) - 1502
9. Alex Davison (Ford) - 1448
10. Steven Johnson (Ford) - 1411

26. Karl Reindler (Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Holden) - 829
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2011 V8 Supercar Championship Series Calendar  
Rnd#1 - Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (February 12) - KRR DNF
Rnd#2 - Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (February 13) - KRR 11th
Rnd#3 - Clipsal 500, Adelaide (March 19) - KRR 19th
Rnd#4 - Clipsal 500, Adelaide (March 20) - KRR 17th
Non-champ. - Australian F1 Grand Prix (March 24-27) - 18th / 19th / 15th
Rnd#5 - ITM 400, Hamilton, NZ (April 16) - KRR 17th
Rnd#6 - ITM 400, Hamilton, NZ (April 17) - KRR 13th
Rnd#7 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (April 30) - KRR 7th
Rnd#8 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (May 1) - KRR DNF
Rnd#9 - Trading Post Perth Challenge (May 1) - KRR DNS
Rnd#10 - Winton Motor Raceway, VIC (May 21) - KRR 20th
Rnd#11 - Winton Motor Raceway, VIC (May 22) - KRR 23rd
Rnd#12 - Skycity Triple Crown, Darwin (June 18) - KRR DNF
Rnd#13 - Skycity Triple Crown, Darwin (June 19) - KRR 25th
Rnd#14 - Sucrogen Townsville 400 (July 9) - KRR 22nd
Rnd#15 - Sucrogen Townsville 400 (July 10) - KRR 24th
Rnd#16 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 20) - KRR 9th
Rnd#17 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 20) - KRR 16th
Rnd#18 - Coates Hire Ipswich 300 (August 21) - KRR 16th
Rnd#19 - L 500, Phillip Island, VIC (September 18) - KRR 28th
Rnd#20 - Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, NSW (October 9) - KRR 14th
Rnd#21 - Armor All Gold Coast 600 (October 22)
Rnd#22 - Armor All Gold Coast 600 (October 23)
Rnd#23 - Falken Tasmania Challenge (November 12)
Rnd#24 - Falken Tasmania Challenge (November 13)
Rnd#25 - Norton 360 Sandown Challenge (November 19)
Rnd#26 - Norton 360 Sandown Challenge (November 20)
Rnd#27 - Sydney Telstra 500 (December 3)
Rnd#28 - Sydney Telstra 500 (December 4)  
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Karl Reindler is proudly supported by Brad Jones Racing, Fair Dinkum Sheds, Yale, Wilson Security, Thompson Aviation, Westrac, EMT, JSW Drilling, National Tyres, Herbalife, Fitness First, Focus Bikes, Zise and Sponsorxchange.com.


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