A tale of two frogs

Today was race day at the Gold Coast Indy 300 and it was an early start with a briefing for all us photographers at 7.30am. There were some very bleery eyes. It was just after this when I was wandering the Indy pit lane that I saw my friend Ryan, who was shooting the event for Jack Daniels Racing, making his modelling debut. Ryan’s the one on the left by the way.

Anyway things on track soon got underway with the Champ Cars out on track for an early practice session. Some drivers were still pushing very hard as you can see by this picture of Paul Tracy with his front wheels off the ground. Crowd favourite Will Power in the Team Australia car was one of the quickest raising expectations for the race.

Next up was a Porsche Carrera cup race and then we had the first V8 Supercar race of the day. It was tight tussle between Garth Tander and Todd Kelly for the lead and it certainly kept us entertained with Garth clinching the win.

After the traditional air show, dancing girls and national anthems we finally came to the main event, the Lexmark Indy 300. Who would have thought it would become a tale of two frogs? Will Power lead from pole and was certainly looking good for his first Champ Car win leading until the first round of pit stops when he collided with Paul Tracy but with only minor damage managed to continue. It was not long after that Sebastien Bourdais suffered a severe attack of Gaelic brain fade when he came in far to hot into a corner and crashed into Will Power effectively ending his race. Bourdais was able to continue and despite being given a drive through penalty for initiating avoidable contact still managed to finish in eight place, enough to clinch his 3rd consecutive Champ car title.

In the end and coming through to clinch his maiden victory was 20 year old Frenchman, Nelson Phillipe. A great effort from the youngest driver in the field and boy was he and the CTE racing team excited. Will managed to bring his severely damaged car home but well down the field although Team Australia did get some compensation with his teamate Alex Tagiani finishing on the podium in 3rd place. And so we come to end of a great 4 days and I head back to chilly old Tasmania but this will not be the last Indy I attend I guarantee you that. Who knows, I might even move up here!