Manuell tops times, but wet weather tyres star

Manuell tops times, but wet weather tyres star

Forty three year old V8 SuperTourer racer Paul Manuell topped the times after the first practice session at Manfeild today - but the real story at the end of the first day of Round 3 was the performance of the Hankook wet tyres.

With Manuell topping the dry part of the session with a 1 minute 8 second lap, M3 Racing team mate Greg Murphy and Supercheap Racing's Scott McLaughlin both lapped regularly in soaking conditions in 1 minute 12 seconds. A dry-wet drop off in times of just four seconds is very unusual at any level of motor racing and it was spectacular to watch for the spectators.

"The tyres were just phenomenal," said Murphy."They are nice and soft and in very wet conditions very safe for the drivers and obviously incredibly quick if you look at the times. What will be interesting is what happens if we have a wet-dry race, the degradation could be very significant and there could be some very interesting results."

Team mate Manuell, meanwhile, was very happy to top the timesheets, but admitted there was a long two days ahead.

"We come to be at the front obviously," he said. "What's great is that Manfeild is not a place that anyone has tested so it is a level playing field and we seem to be right there. The circuit does require you to be a bit of an animal and I like to think that's one of my strengths, but it's great to be at the top of the times."

Behind Manuell was Andy Knight, who put in a huge amount of laps in dry and wet conditions, Kayne Scott, who was quick from the outset and Richard Moore, again showing well in the Skinny Racing Holden Commodore.

The V8 SuperTourers practice again at 10am Saturday morning, with qualifying at 1.30pm and Race 1 later in the afternoon.

ENDS

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