One hour remains in the 2010 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour and Pollicina Motorsports are almost certain to claim a highly respectable top ten finish, providing nothing mechanically goes wrong on the track or mechanically.
For the last 90 minutes, Simon Middleton has been steadily keeping a consistent pace around Mount Panorama and not making any little errors that could jeopardize the team’s chances of an extremely outstanding result. Though now a lap adrift of their nearest competitors, the Hankook Lancer of Conroy/Brame/Robson, the Pollicina Lancer Evo VIII remained in seventh position for the entire hour.
As the race ticked over into its final hour, Middleton came in for the teams’ final stop of the race which included a quick splash of fuel and an efficient driver change to Jim Pollicina. Pollicina will now drive the car to the chequered flag. The Lancer only dropped one spot to eighth, with seven now occupied by the Moffat FPV F6 Typhoon.
His job now done for the weekend, Middleton was physically spent from his stint but very happy with how the race has turned out. “It’s a great result so far,” Middleton said. “It was just a matter of keeping smart about and not pushing it too hard. I was getting good feedback from my crew that we had a good break from our opposition, so we didn’t have to push too hard, maintain the pace and so far, we’re very happy.”
Pollicina is now in the car to take the car to the chequered flag and with a little less than an hour to go, the chances of failure still loom. On the flip side, the chances of an excellent top ten result are now extremely strong and quite exciting. The 2010 12 Hour finishes at 6:30pm.
To follow the live broadcast, log on to www.bathurst12hour.com.au