our six of the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour was spent entirely behind the Safety Car, due to the dangerously wet conditions that has taken hold of Mount Panorama. Because of this, there was very little gain made by everyone including Pollicina Motorsports.
Despite the incident that occurred during the fifth hour, owner-driver Jim Pollicina remained stayed out on track and gained one place as a result of a competitor pitting. He eventually pitted at the end of the sixth hour to hand back the car to John O’Dowd. He will now stay in the car until called in by the Greg Murphy Racing crew. Along with the driver change, they refueled and changed tyres for the first time in this race.
After getting out of the car, Pollicina was a little sheepish but admitted fault by what happened during his stint. “When I approached the Esses, I just went in pretty hot, locked a brake and went straight ahead into the tyre wall,” Pollicina said. “The car looks a bit ugly now but there is no damage on the mechanical side of things. Then when I approached the Chase, I tried to overtake one of the BMWs and he wouldn’t give me any room. So I tried to overtake him on the outside and it was starting to rain as well, so there were puddles of water everyone. I hit one and aquaplaned and speared off the track.”
Given that not much time was lost, Pollicina, O’Dowd and Simon Middleton remain hopeful to climb back into the top ten. Still under Safety Car conditions, the Lancer has dropped two spots after its pit stop to be 14th on track. O’Dowd is now at the wheel.
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