THE Dunlop Series Mount Panorama experience is officially underway for Bathurst-based driver Phil Woodbury following Thursday’s opening practice session.
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While his two minutes and 16.4484 seconds lap had him at the bottom of the time sheets, it was an enjoyable learning curve for Woodbury in the development series category.
Woodbury – this time taking on the Dunlop Series after contesting the V8 Utes here last year – also kept his car on the track, which is more than could be said for several of his competitors.
Paul Dumbrell was fastest in Thursday’s session with a 2:08.1435, followed by Chris Pither (2:08.5158) and Andrew Jones (2:08.5862).
Even during practice, when virtually nothing is on the line, Woodbury said driving his Holden Commodore VE2 was still a thrilling experience.
“It was just a bit of a roll-around to get used to the car and the track. Even though we were still only rolling along, my eyes were still the size of dinner plates going around,” he said.
“The car started to slide around a bit on me, so I came into the pits and found that we actually had a bit of a starter motor problem, so we couldn’t continue the session. That was disappointing but we got some good laps in and we’re ready to go for the next one.
“I just wanted to get a read on the car to see what it could do as well as get the confidence up. At this place you could not change a thing in the setup and still pick up seconds from a driver being comfortable.”
Woodbury still completed 12 laps before having to bring his car back to pit lane.
Comparing the Commodore to the V8 Utes, Woodbury said the speed difference is immense.
“When you’re going up Mountain Straight and going down Conrod you know you’re moving,” he said.
“It throws you into the seat on the hills and lifts you out of the seat as you go across the top. It’s a bit like a rollercoaster really.”
Friday will see Woodbury able to ditch the older set of tyres used yesterday and apply a green set the second practice session.
While it was smooth sailing through most of Thursday’s first session, there were some worrying moments for several drivers.
Just six minutes into session the red flag came out when Dan Day became a victim of The Chase.
Day’s rear right drifted out from under him when under brakes, spitting him into the sand trap and holding the other drivers in pit lane for over five minutes.
Macauley Jones ran very deep at The Chase and just avoided the wall at the end of the sand trap.
Shortly after the early red flag Dumbrell posted a 2:08.9710, which he wouldn’t better until the closing stages of the session.
In the final 10 minutes of the session, Dumbrell and Pither traded their time at the top of the leader board.
Dumbrell’s 2:08.7648 was bettered by .25 of a second by Pither with less than five minutes to go before the defending champion pinched top spot back.
Pither’s chance to better his time was ruined when he ran long at Hell Corner.
Friday’s second practice session will start at 10.40am.