OH SO CLOSE FOR CARTER ON THE COAST
October 25, 2010: Sean Carter took his Plan4Growth/On Time Earth MINI to an outstanding result in support to the Armor All Gold Coast 600 across the weekend, finishing two races on the podium and recording the closest ever finish for a MINI Challenge race in Australia.
After spectacularly fighting his way into the lead during Saturday’s race two, current MINI Challenge Series Champion, Paul Stokell hunted down Carter. The pair reached lapped traffic on the last corner and Stokell drew level on the front straightaway, the veteran getting the nod by just 0.01 of a second. So close was the finish, officials even inspected both cars post race to ensure their transponders were located in the same position!
If that excitement wasn’t enough, in Sunday’s third race, a top two result was stolen from Carter when Glenn Seton rounded up the youngster and Stokell on the final lap to win. Sean was attempting to extract the maximum from his 240 kilometre per hour, 211 horsepower MINI Challenge racer.
The weekend didn’t start well with a throttle issue putting Sean out of practice on Friday morning, however with this problem fixed, he showed great pace to qualify in sixth place. He advanced one place in the opening race before the top eight were inverted for race two, placing Sean off grid four.
The result moves Sean closer to his nearest Championship rival, Peter McNiven – narrowing that gap to just 13 points with another round to go in Sydney, where he will try and elevate himself into the top three – and score his first race win.
It was a rewarding weekend for Sean and the Bargwanna Motorsport-run team. They will now regroup and prepare for the Sydney event in early December.
WHAT SEAN HAD TO SAY:
“Overall, I’m incredibly happy with how the weekend panned out. We closed on Peter a little and he’s right in my sights as we head to Homebush. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t on the MINI Challenge podium for the weekend, but we bagged solid points – and nearly got a win!
“On Friday when we had the problem I thought it was going to be one of those weekends, but it turned out amazingly well for us. The fly by wire problem we experienced put us right off from the beginning, we didn’t get on to setting up the car until basically after race one.
“Race two was just amazing. To be leading and nearly winning was a great feeling…but getting caught up on the final corner with a lapped car which distracted me just enough that Paul could sneak through for the win. I don’t think it could have been any closer!
“The third race was just an awesome race all round. Any one of us had potential to win it and it could have gone either way.
“I’m absolutely stoked with that after having the re-build from Phillip Island and we’ll be going all out in Sydney, I can assure you of that!”
SEAN CARTER QUICK RESULTS – Hertz MINI Challenge, delivered by Pizza Capers, Armor All Gold Coast 600, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
Practice: DNS
Qualifying: 6th
Race 1: 5th
Race 2: 2nd
Race 3: 3rd
Round: 4th
Championship Positions:
1. Chris Alajajian 691 points
2. Paul Stokell 662.5 points
3. Peter McNiven 572 points
4. Sean Carter 559 points
5. Gavin Yortt 508.5 points
More Information:
Matt Payne
Acclaim Media for Plan4Growth Racing
Ph: 0413 082 142
Em: matt
Acclaim Media 