After a tough practice day, Tim Blanchard was looking for a change of fortune in Race 1 of the final round of the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Sydney's Olympic Park. The tight confines and unforgiving layout was a recipe for action and it delivered on the very first lap. Starting from P10, Tim was holding station as the cars ran down to the tight Turn 1. All hell broke loose with a major accident behind him involving Rodney Jane and Marcus Zukanovic bringing out the Safety Car. After a number of laps under yellow, the field was away and Tim quickly moved past Andy Jones and then closed on Paul Morris and Taz Douglas. These two then got together at Turn 11 and a fast reacting Blanchard steered the #27 Jayco / Cool Drive Falcon around the two cars. This moved Tim into 7th place which became 6th when Jilesen retired.

Tim's race pace was very strong matching times of Russell and Perkins in the closing stages to finish a fine 6th place.

'Qualifying wasn't too flash this morning. We struggled getting the car to ride the kerbs so we made some big changes to soften the car up for the race. It was bit of a hero or zero strategy but turned out well' Tim said as he arrived back in the Jayco garage. 'We made up some spots in the race including watching Taz & Paul getting together. They blocked the track a fair bit, but I managed to pick the gap and get by. Our race pace from the mid to the end was quite good so it should allow us to really push on tomorrow' Tim added.