Gurr and Faulkner salvage Paul Morris pride.
A top ten result by Gold Coast driver Alan Gurr and New Zealand's John Faulkner salvaged pride for the Paul Morris Motorsports V8 Supercar team in Sunday's Super Cheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst.
Gurr and Faulkner completed the tenth round of this year's V8 Supercar Championship in 10th position in a PMM-built Team Kiwi Racing-Sirromet Wines VZ Holden Commodore whilst the Paul Morris and Paul Radisich Commodore was eliminated in an early incident.
A top ten result by Gold Coast driver Alan Gurr and New Zealand's John Faulkner salvaged pride for the Paul Morris Motorsports V8 Supercar team in Sunday's Super Cheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst.
Gurr and Faulkner completed the tenth round of this year's V8 Supercar Championship in 10th position in a PMM-built Team Kiwi Racing-Sirromet Wines VZ Holden Commodore whilst the Paul Morris and Paul Radisich Commodore was eliminated in an early incident.
"Our aim was to make it to the finish. We achieved that, and to end up in the top 10 is a bonus," said Gurr afterwards. "It's great to finally get a result at Bathurst and it's given me more confidence for the future. I concentrated hard on staying out of trouble and we didn't put a scratch on the car. The only problem we had was when the 'dash' turned itself off and the brake lights went off. We had to make some extra pits stops to fix the problem."
Gurr's result was a personal triumph in his fourth start in the 1000km race. He was forced to retire from the event in 2002 and 2003 because of mechanical problems, and crashed in 2004.
The 23-year-old PMM staff member drove a total of 70 laps. Faulkner drove 88 laps, including a double stint, in the closing stages of his 19th Bathurst start. They finished three laps behind the race-winning Holden Racing Team Commodore of Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly.
"I've been coming to Bathurst for many years and a top ten result is not to be sneezed at," says Faulkner. "I wasn't sure how I would handle the double stint at the end, but the ambient temperatures were cool today and I got through it surprisingly well. The car was easy to drive and I was happy with my lap times considering I hadn't done any race laps here since 2002. Alan (Gurr) kept the car straight. He's on a steep learning curve and now he's finished one of these races he will be better for the experience."