The Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series kicked off its three race event in Townsville today with a wild and woolly 14 lap race. Lining up in 10th position, Tim was a little happier than his practice performance from Friday.

The start of Race was smooth enough but it only lasted until Turn 2 when cars were spearing off in all directions. Three cars were eliminated on the spot. For Blanchard it was a case of threading the needle as he saw cars going in spinning in front and around him. He pulled quickly to the right and made the turn unscathed to finish lap 1 in 8th place. The Safety Car was deployed to clean up the cars and debris and when racing resumed on lap 5 Tim set about trying to bring the #27 Jayco / Cool Drive Falcon up the field. The following lap he launched a big move under Daniel Jilesen getting past but running wide and allowing Rod Jane to buy into the fight. The net result was the same after the lap finished with Tim still in 8th place!

A second Safety Car was called for Fiore's accident and with a short run to the flag Tim was struggling to hold out Jilesen who passed him on the last lap. Blanchard finished in 9th position and will line up on the front row for the reverse grid race 2 on Sunday morning. 'A wild race today!' Tim said. 'There was big incident on lap 1 and I was very happy to get around it all. Some good luck we needed! The car was again quite good but we need to do more work overnight to capitalise on our grid spot for tomorrow.' Blanchard concluded.

The race was won by Andrew Thompson from David Russell and Nick Percat. Tim Blanchard remains in 6th place in the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.