Reigning V8 SuperUtes Series champion Aaron Borg has taken the first pole position of the 2023 V8 SuperUte Series at CARCO.com.au Raceway in Western Australia today (April 28, 2023).
Backed by ACDelco Service Centre Midland in his new Isuzu D-MAX, Borg had earlier topped a red flag-marred morning practice with a fastest time of 1m05.3602sec before bettering that time in qualifying with a 1m04:7261sec lap straight out the gate. SRT teammate David Sieders (#3) drove his Mazda BT-50 into first soon after with a time of 1m04:5832sec.
Former SuperUtes champion Ryal Harris (#58) only clocked three laps before retiring early with gearbox issues, while Motion Team Triton Racing’s Adam Marjoram (#15) was happy with a time of 1m04:7308s to qualifying third outright and sit out the second half of qualifying.
Times were fairly unchanged for the final 10 minutes of the 20-minute session, with Borg remaining out front with a best time for pole position of 1m04.4353sec in the #1 SRT SuperUte.
In his short time on track, Harris was able to qualify fourth outright ahead of Western Sydney Motorsport steerer Ben Walsh (#8) completing the top five.
Race 1 for the V8 SuperUte Series will begin at 09:25 local time tomorrow Saturday April 29, with Race 2 being a reversed-grid race after lunch. Watch all races live via FoxSports and Kayo.
Download practice and qualifying results.
QUOTEBOOK:
#1 AARON BORG – “Locked a right front in qualifying on lap one so will be managing that to ensure we have good tyres for later in the weekend. Haven’t done any long runs in this new D-MAX so will be interesting how it goes over the distance. A massive shoutout to SRT crew, with two brand new car builds locking out front row.”
#5 DAVID CASEY – “I’m really happy with qualifying, 8th is my best in SuperUtes ever. To come out top-10 with such huge experience in the field is a good indicator if you’re on the pace. The breaking performance is better in this new D-MAX compared to last year’s car for sure.”
#15 ADAM MARJORAM – “I’m definitely shaking off rust and still working hard at getting back into it. Only been in a race car three times over the last four years! In qualifying I messed up the exit of Turn 6 which cost me pole position. Amazing to have people from Motion and Ultima Shock Absorbers over the weekend at the track.”
#19 GEORGE GUTIERREZ – “Finished P6 and happy to be up the pointy end of what now is a massive field. Unfortunately towards the end of the session the car went into limp mode, had no throttle, but we installed a new throttle body and a few electrical components and all seems to have been fixed, fingers crossed!”
#64 CRAIG WOODS – “Confident with our speed from practice on old tyres finishing fourth. We put the new SuperUte forged wheels and new rubber on thinking that the balance would be similar to last year, but with the new style wheel, these cars seem to create a lot more front grip.”
#333 ROB MCMAHON – “Qualifying went very well, I had a few cars to negotiate space at the start but after a few laps it all went pretty well to qualify 13th. Nothing really went wrong, however, being my first time at Perth and in a SuperUte it was a great learning experience. I’m feeling confident that we will get faster as Race 1 goes on and I’m hoping to possible gain a few spots.”