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Ford Performance Racing (FPR) drivers
Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom have raced to the team’s second consecutive
double podium finish at a fast and furious 13th round of the V8 Supercar
Championship Series held at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway over the
weekend.
After Winterbottom gained the team’s fifth front row start in
qualifying (second) and raced to third place in Saturday’s opening race – and
with team mate Richards qualifying 6th and racing to fourth place, the team was
confident of further strong results in the remaining two races at this
challenging 2.4 kilometre circuit.
Sunday’s second race of the round saw further car pace
improvements, with Richards racing his Castrol FPR Falcon to a strong second
place with Winterbottom’s Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon finishing third,
amassing strong points ahead of the final 50 lap challenge in the
afternoon.
The third and final race of the round proved to be the most
thrilling, with a number of incidents taking place that would ultimately prove
to fall into FPR’s favour. For Richards, who has finished twice on the Symmons
Plains podium before, it was a superb race, chasing early race leader Garth
Tander until making his compulsory pit stop on the tenth lap. A strategy mistake
by the team cost Winterbottom several track positions (from 3rd to 8th) during
the race.
A perfect drive by Richards saw him chase the race leader Jamie
Whincup relentlessly, the nature of the circuit and its effects on braking
systems making it virtually impossible to pass. Holden rival and Championship
contender Garth Tander followed Richards and with just ten laps remaining he
collided with the FPR Falcon driver at the hairpin corner. Richards recovered
from the impact well, but Tander continued along the back straight with a broken
steering. This caused him to exit the circuit spectacularly at over 250 kph,
narrowly avoiding Winterbottom when crossing the circuit while out
of control. Tander’s exit from
the race (and the lead of the Championship) handed Winterbottom the points he
needed to move back into third overall for the round, the young driver finishing
the eventful race in 7th place.
Richards’ constant pace and smooth driving throughout the round
resulted in the 35 year old driver racing to second place for the round, with
Ford driver Jamie Whincup taking the overall honours. Winterbottom’s third place
finish rounded off an all Ford podium.
This podium finish is FPR’s second consecutive podium result
following the team’s first round victory of the season at the Desert 400 in the
Kingdom of Bahrain a fortnight ago.
#6 Steve Richards - “Since Sandown the team has really got
on top of it and it is a testament to the team to have two cars on the
podium here today. There is absolutely no doubt that five one-hundredths of
second in qualifying cost us the round victory as the car was fast enough
to win and it is so hard to find a way past at this circuit. Once you get behind
a car the brakes are affected a lot and unless you are right up behind the
car in front you’re never close enough to challenge for the pass. I’m a bit
staggered by Garth’s move in the hairpin. Maybe he went too deep and
had no option - if the move was successful he could have jumped us for
the round, but we’re not a championship contender so I’m not sure what he
was doing. I’m confident we’ll be competitive at Phillip Island where we’ll be
looking to stay well ahead of the battle for the Championship and take the
round win.”
#5 Mark Winterbottom - “A great result for the team to
have both cars finish on the podium, just after winning the round in
Bahrain. Now we need to carry this speed to Phillip Island and into
next season. The pit stop mistake cost me quite a bit of time but the team
handled the pressure perfectly and we both still ended up on the podium - for
once some luck came my way. After coming together with Richo, Garth Tander tried
to block me at 260 km/h on the back straight with some major steering
damage and then speared off the circuit only to come straight across in
front of me. It was a very close call. I asked the guys in the team if
he got more air than I did at Bathurst but they told me I am still the
winner of that particular award!”
FPR Team Principal Tim Edwards - “A fantastic result to
have both drivers finish on the podium at this competitive round. We are
finishing the season strongly as we did last year, but we were lucky today. We
made a mistake with our pit stop and fortunately we were able to escape from
that due to our strong results in the first two races. Ultimately we will learn
from this. A fantastic job by everyone in the team.”
The weekend’s results’ have elevated Steve Richards to 6th in the
Championship standings behind his team mate who remains 5th in the standings.
FPR now placed third in the Teams’ Championship with one round remaining at
Victoria’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit to be held from November 30 to
December 2.
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