With Abigail’s engine still being worked on it was decided to take Ruth to the mountain, the TA2 class car that Andrew had recently enjoyed a recent podium at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Due to Covid 19, V8 Supercars chose to combine a number of categories’ together into a combined class called “Tin Tops”. This was the brain child of Paul Morris to get cars out of workshops and onto the track and allowed many different types of car to enter to fill a grid of 35, but this means speeds from the fastest to the slowest car would vary greatly, just like the Bathurst 1000 races seen in the days of old.
After the practice session on Thursday was cut short with a lengthy red flag, Fisher had only done 4 laps, which wouldn’t be a problem for the Bathurst veteran but the TA2 car is a left hand drive so walls that Andrew would normally not see up close were coming up fast being on the opposite side of the car.
Friday morning was a full 20 minutes practice, allowing Fisher to get a feel for the left hand hooked car and experience the slower cars. Andrew had to skillfully avoid a slower car coming over the top of Skyline (a 180km, blind crested corner). He then over took that car, going through Forest Elbow only to have him power past the Jesus TA2 car down the straight. Even with the tricky traffic and Andrew battling the rear wheels locking going into the corners, he found the 2nd fastest lap in class and 11 fastest overall.
The Midday sun brought the cars out for Qualifying. The cars were sent out in P2 finishing order, which meant that Fishtail had 2 or 3 laps to put in a time before he would catch the slower cars. Lap 1 saw a personal best of a 2:19.6 and into P9. Lap 2 saw him jump into P8 and on lap 3 Andrew caught a few slow cars putting him down in sector 1 and 2 but was hooked up in the last sector crossing the line with a 2:17.6. The window then firmly shut as the next few laps were hindered with slower cars and the Jesus TA2 car had slotted in position 10 for the start of 2 races tomorrow.
“That was pretty crazy” Andrew remarked, “It is pretty challenging to turn up to Bathurst in a car you are still not comfortable in. The car still had some pace left but I was a bit chicken” laughed Fishtail. “I’m happy to be in the top ten and the lap time was decent, being just on 1 second off the lap record holder for TA2 drivers at Bathurst and hopefully will be able to build on that in the races tomorrow.”