The MINI Challenge action from Western Australia’s Barbagallo Raceway has just finished. And, like last year, Leanne Tander was in the thick of the action. In the footage above you will see the aftermath of an incident involving Tander and Aaron Caratti on the third lap of today’s Race 3. Tander, driving the Pizza Capers Uber-Star car appeared to be pushed wide by Caratti which forced Tander into a concrete wall where she made heavy contact on the driver’s side.
The 25 lap race was red flagged and Tander and Caratti were able to free themselves from their cars and it has been reported neither driver suffered any serious injuries.
Further mayhem followed at the race start. Now reduced to a 20 lap race there was apparent confusion on starting orders and several cars made contact before the first corner. The race was stopped again, with all remaining drivers making a clean get away from the re-start.
Race 3 was finally won by Nathan Caratti in his Glory Team Racing machine, with the Deco Rug duo of Paul Stokell and Grant Denyer filling the minor placings. Full race action can be now seen after the jump. The muddled up re-start can be found at the end of clip one, and again at the start of clip two.
Results from yesterday saw Nathan Caratti take out Race 1, with Karl Reindler and Scott Bargwanna following in second and third. Race 2 was won by series leader Paul Stokell, Chris Alajajian came home second with Nathan Caratti rounding out a great weekend in third.
If you want to see more MINI Challenge action on TV, Channel 7’s highlights package from this round will be aired across the nation next Saturday from 1:30pm. The final round for the year is two weeks away and will be held the new street circuit at Sydney’s Homebush Olympic precinct. There will be live coverage from thatrace, as well, so keep an eye on your local TV guide for details.
6 replies on “MINI CHALLENGE 2009 – Round 7, Race 3”
I don’t think that the medicos woul have wanted to put Tander in the same emergency vehicle as the other driver, she was well entitled to be upset in that poor example of racecraft.
Hi,
The mess at the restart was bizarre!
I feel the pain for the paying drivers at the back of the grid. $5k entry fee is bearable, but the $20k crash damage is the big risk. Unfortunately, due to Stokell and Alajajian not understanding the rules of the restart, it ended up in a mess with the backmarkers having nowhere to go. Some of them ended up getting major damage to cars.
The driving standards people at the circuit and CAMS should have a serious talk to messers stokell and alajajian. They were the ones that stuffed up, but their cars were undamaged. The poor buggers at the rear of the field copped all the damage.
Cheers
Robbo
Agree with Robbo – a great shame for the little guys, without whom there probably wouldn’t be a series.
i was driving the other rock energy car and i can tell you the first restart failed completely due to the man in the starters box… nothing to do with paul or chris
Hi,
Thanks for the information, and pass on my apologies to Paul and Chris for my comments.
However, channel 7 should also apologise, as there was no mention of this on the coverage. The only comment was the fact that stokell and alajajian either stalled their cars or didn’t understand the restart and thought there was a warm up lap. This was repeated over and over at least 10 times.
Sorry for any misunderstanding, and I sincerely apologise to those involved.
Now, if the starter was responsible, CAMS should look into that ..
Cheers
Robbo
Thanks for the update Sean. That re-start was certainly a disaster to watch on the telly. Hopefully you guys don’t have to go through that again.
Keep up the cracking pace, too!