Monday, 17 December 2007
Popular Fujitsu Series V8 Supercar frontrunner and former Australian V8 Ute and Commodore Cup champion Marcus Zukanovic ended his 2007 competition season with a mixture of highs and lows at the final round of the Shannons Nationals at Sandown last weekend, a weekend that ran in not to dissimilar circumstances to his final Supercar run the weekend prior at Phillip Island.
Entering the Phillip Island round of the 2007 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, Zukanovic was sitting just outside the top 10 in the championship points thanks to a horror run at the fourth round of the series at Queensland Raceway in July where he amassed just four points thanks to multiple contacts with Falcon pilot Andrew Thompson. At Oran Park’s fifth round he again failed to record a good points haul in the treacherous conditions, after two late race offs whilst running inside the top five in two of the three races, but he more than showed the potential that made him a dual Australian champion in 2006 by setting the fastest lap of the race in Saturday’s opening race.
By Bathurst he was back on form and put in a couple of blinding drives to be classified fourth at the close of the weekend, despite all manner of challenges including a series of close contacts from spinning drivers and an errant kangaroo... At Phillip Island for the final of seven rounds, Marcus qualified seventh and was expected to be a strong challenger for a podium position, but succumbed to an unusual failure during the opening race after running strongly inside the top ten, a rock from a fellow competitor disconnecting the power from the engine via an emergency release which is situated at the base of the windscreen. The hook is attached to a cable which can allow officials to disconnect the power from the car in case of an accident, Marcus rolling to a stop unsure of what had transpired only to reset all electrics and re-fire the car. “I had no idea what happened,” Marcus shrugged afterwards, “until the boys noticed a huge hole in the windscreen immediately behind the release hook for the power, so clearly a rock has hit it in a freak bounce and shut the electrics down..”
In race two, starting from position 17, Marcus was on fire and ran inside the top eight within three laps, latching onto the tail of the lead pack. By lap six he was sixth and turning laps up to half a second quicker than championship leader Tony D’Alberto who needed to finish no worse than seventh to claim Holden’s first Development Series crown in five years. “I told Tony prior to the race that if he was struggling with traffic that I’d work my way through to him and act as defender to make sure he stayed inside the top six. I got to him pretty quickly and he appeared to be struggling early on, in fact at one point I think he forgot our discussion because he tried to run me wide whilst I was keeping Brett (Hobson) at bay..”
Marcus clearly had the pace over D’Alberto, but with Hobson and Jay Verdnik immediately behind him, knew that any attack on the points leader may cost him more than just a single position. “Towards the end Tony seemed to find his rhythm and we started to pull away, but in the early stages it didn’t look good. I think we had a car that was top three, and the way it came on early, I could easily have caught the lead group, but who knows - what’s important is that Holden won the title, and I worked my way back inside the top ten in the championship with sixth in that second race, which was exactly what I was aiming at for my first year back in the category. I’m rapt!”
After two fourth placed finishes (Winton and Bathurst) in the championship and a non-scoring round at Clipsal’s season opener, Marcus was classified tenth in the seven-round 2007 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series with 127 points. Tony D’Alberto took the championship win, the third for Holden in the eight year history of the series, by just five points over Michael Caruso (Ford) who dominated the final round by setting the fastest qualifying time and comfortably winning both races.
Whilst many of the Supercar stars celebrated the conclusion of the 2007 season and a month or two of respite, Marcus returned home with one more score still to settle, a chance to campaign the coveted #1 race number just one more time.
The final round of the Shannons Nationals was scheduled for Sandown the week after Phillip island, with Marcus entered in Commodore Cup in his championship winning VS Commodore, resplendent in Opes Prime colours, mirroring the livery of his ex-Garth Tander VZ Commodore Supercar. Off P3 for the opening race, Marcus worked his way through to second in the opening 12 lapper, finishing mere metres behind championship leader Geoff Emery. In race two, Zukanovic quickly worked his way to the front and opened up a comfortable lead to easily win the second race, before fate intervened in his final drive as reigning champion, fuel pump failure costing him certain victory whilst leading.
“It was a mixed weekend in the end,” Marcus agreed. “We had the pace to win the event outright, but succumbed to a rare failure. It first caught me at Dandenong Road corner when the engine cut out whilst I was leading and spun me around because of a compression lockup - I wondered what happened until it continued to cause problems immediately after I re-fired, so we struggled around for a few more laps before I pulled it off the circuit, it was pointless..”
“Overall though it has been a fantastic year. Now I’m just flat out into my training in preparation for Clipsal next year.. I can’t wait. I have to thank Opes Prime for joining us this year and for making a solid commitment to 2008, that will really give me a chance to show what we’re truly capable of - keep an eye on the #73 Opes Prime Commodore, it will be a real outright contender next season, you have my promise on that! I also want to thank my father (Mick), whose passion for this sport and commitment to his family is one of the main reasons we’re here, thanks Dad..”