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09 November 2003

Brad Jones has flown the OzEmail Racing flag in race three of the New Zealand V8 International at Pukekohe Raceway, coming from 22nd on the grid to bound home in 15th position. Some reward after the controversial black flag incident handed to the driver in race two.

Team-mate John Bowe who had worked meticulously to fight his way into the top ten after the first two races, was dealt a cruel blow, when his engine suffered terminal problems on the warm up lap of the last race. He was unable to start the final encounter.

From unwarranted black flag penalties and mechanical failures to non paying gambles on pit stops, it proved to be tough and challenging weekend for the OzEmail Racing Team.

"John [Bowe] getting into the top ten before race three and the speed of our pit stops were the highlights for us but we are going to have to regroup after this weekend and get ourselves back on top of things for the last round at Eastern Creek," said Brad Jones. "We have to work on our qualifying performances and improving our reliability."

Commenting on his outstanding drive in race three, Jones added further: "I managed to keep out of trouble plus my car felt pretty good. As John [Bowe] has said, our OzEmail Falcons were quite friendly on tyres and I made up most of my places in the latter part in the race. It's hard to get too excited about finishing 15th though."

Bowe, who was looking at forcing his way into the top ten in the championship standings this weekend was bitterly disappointed with his inability to take to the track for the last race.

"I'm not sure what went wrong with the engine, I guess the engineers will have a good look at it when it gets back to Australia. My OzEmail Falcon wasn't as balanced as it has been all year and I had to work bloody hard to make up the places that it did," said Bowe.

"But the biggest disappointment is that the guys doing the pit stops had done a fantastic job in every race and they weren't able to take a reasonable result away from this round. Both Brad and I owe a fair few of our gains on the track to these guys," Bowe concluded.

The final round of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship takes place at Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway in three weeks time, with the first ever full grid [32 cars] Shootout.