ParcFerme.Com

Racing fans are in for a spectacle at Eastern Creek this afternoon after the track’s distinctive character produced a chaotic V8 Supercar grid with some of the fastest drivers facing an uphill battle.

Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards are among them, qualifying 15^th and 19^th respectively, and are now in strategic counsel with the Prodrive-run team to overcome the difficult starting position.

Both are confident that this, as well as some strong racing, can see them come away from the Sydney track with good points after today’s first race, which starts at 15.45.

Mark Winterbottom

#5 Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon

 “We need to just be smart about strategy and try to come through. It’s not going to be easy; we’ve given away the advantage. There was just no grip; maybe it was just the rain last night that made the difference.

“The final ten is not the usual suspects but then Eastern Creek always brings that out so it’s not that surprising really. Some cars just suit some tracks and this one’s not one of our better circuits.”

Steven Richards

#6 Castrol FPR Falcon

“Our cars are definitely better than our qualifying positions so we need to keep our nose clean and get some points, but 19^th is a difficult position to be going into a race.

“We didn’t manage that session very well at all. We should have stayed out for the second flying lap but we made the wrong decision to come in and put rear tyres on. If we had finished the lap we were on at the end of that second session, we would have been good for 14^th and who knows after that. We would have got one more lap in and if the trend continued we would have been faster.”

Tim Edwards

FPR Team Principal

“Basically the car wasn’t quick enough. I’m sure the track has changed overnight, but 14 other people in front of us were able to adapt to that so there is no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to.

“The truth of the matter is that our car, fortunately or unfortunately, will probably be quite a good race car as opposed to some of the other people whose car will drop off in the race because it was more suited to qualifying. However we have still got a significant number of people to pass to come away with a decent result.”

2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series - Round 2 Qualifying
EASTERN CREEK INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

1 Garth Tander Holden Commodore VE 1:32.1080*

2 Mark Skaife Holden Commodore VE 1:32.2926 

3 Rick Kelly, Holden Commodore VE, 1:32.4431 

4 Jamie Whincup, Ford Falcon BF, 1:32.50975

5 Cameron McConville, Holden Commodore VE, 1:32.7130

6 Will Davison, Ford Falcon BF, 1:32.7527

7 James Courtney, Ford Falcon BF, 1:32.7706

8 Lee Holdsworth, Holden Commodore VE, 1:32.8409

9 Paul Dumbrell, Holden Commodore VE, 1:33.4414

10 Shane Van Gisbergen, Ford Falcon BF, 1:33.5298

15 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon, 1:33.2059

19 Ford Performance Racing, Steven Richards, Castrol Ford Falcon, 1:33.2417