After qualifying an excellent 12th out of thirty drivers in his first ever V8 car qualifying session in the Dunlop Series at Adelaide, and just 1.
030s from the pole sitter, Casey Stoner’s first ever car race came to an abrupt halt after he was forced to retire, due to a punctured tire while he was driving in 13th place.
The former MotoGP world champion was up to 11th after the first of twenty lap race, and during the 3rd lap overtook Aaren Russell for 10th, but then slowly began losing ground and positions, and on the 11th lap he almost ran off track and just four turns later ran wide again as his VE Commodore locked up, puncturing a front tire before scraping the concrete wall and he was out of the race 1.
“I made a mistake and locked up big time going in to the last corner – not what everybody saw on TV… that was later,” said Stoner speaking to the Herald Sun.
“ I tried to save the tyres so I could actually finish the race.
I kept locking up here and there, even without any kind of brakes, and unfortunately got too much of a flat spot and she popped on me coming through turn three.
Once the tyre burst I was in for a ride.
I tried to save it as much as I could but it was game over.
” ““This crash won’t put me in a good position for race two but, oh well.
We can tune the car up and see what we can do tomorrow,” added Stoner.
The 2nd race of round 1 of the Dunlop Series starts tomorrow.
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