Pollicina Motorsports have gotten their Australian Six Hour campaign off to a positive start, finishing seventh overall in the combined results from Friday’s three practice sessions. Owner-driver Jim Pollicina, along with Anthony Loscialpo and Gerry Murphy got valuable track time whilst posting very respectable times during the three sessions in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII.
Considering themselves the dark horses for Sunday’s six-hour epic, the trio were lapping the Eastern Creek circuit comfortably in the 1m47s bracket, ending the day with a fastest time of 1m47.8158s and seventh overall. Their time was 2.7s slower than the fastest time set by the GWS Personnel BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnell and John Bowe. Whilst the gap between the BMW and themselves is quite considerable, the trio is quite confident that the Lancer Evo VIII is more than capable of surviving six hours around Eastern Creek.
Pollicina set the team's fastest lap during the three sessions and although he knows his Lancer back to front in wet conditions, he is stepping into unfamiliar territoryby racing the car in the dry for the first time. "Given that we were running on old tyres and old brakes, I am pretty happy with what we set out to achieve," Pollicina said. "I know how the car goes in the wet after the Bathurst 12 Hour, but Eastern Creek is a very different track. It's a long flowing circuit with a lot of flowing corners, but I'm pretty confident that we will do well and we can hopefully finish in the top five.
Loscialpo and Murphy took some time to acclimatise to the car and although they both know Eastern Creek very well, it was a case of re-educating their driving technique in an all wheel drive car. "Considering I had some practice in the carduring a test day a few weeks ago which was average, yesterday was a big improvement," Loscialpo said. "We were doing on average the same times as Jim, the car is handling good and we are getting a feel for the car now. The grip levels compared to my Commodore are higher and the cornering speeds are higher too, but the braking is not as strong compared to the Commodore. That said, it's an interesting car to drive."
It is those comments that are shared by Murphy. "It was really good. Yesterday was the first opportunity to feel the difference and it's an impressive bit of kit," he said. "It takes a different driving style to get used to. With the Commodore I drive with Jiim in Production Touring Cars, you tend to throw it around a little bit more. With the Lancer, you have to be kind to it, be precise and turn into the corners a little earlier than you would in the Commodore to keep up the mid-corner pace."
Qualifying for the inaugural Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour will be held on Saturday afternoon with the main race to begin at 10:30am on Sunday.
For more information on the Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour, visit www.thenationals.com.au/australian6hour