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Ford Performance
Racing’s Mark Winterbottom has spoken of his high regard for new Race Engineer,
Dan Kroehn, who has now taken over full responsibility from predecessor Clinton
Wilson.
Since the beginning
of the year Kroehn has been working closely with Wilson, who took up his new
none-motorsport engineering position in Newcastle last month, and says he is
more than ready to take the helm.
“Working with Clinton
for the last couple of race meetings has been a big help,” said Kroehn, who has
four years’ experience in V8 Supercars with Brad Jones Racing and WPS Racing.
“Race engineering is about understanding how your driver and the car work
together and that’s been the whole point of this lead-in process. It’s just fine
tuning the relationship from now on.
“I think Mark is an
exceptional driver; very talented and provides very good and accurate feedback.
He is not demanding but thorough in all aspects of the car. I’m really looking
forward to the challenge of working with him in a team that is obviously heading
in the right direction.”
Winterbottom,
currently fourth in the driver standings, says Kroehn’s approach is not what he
is used to but has proved very successful. “Everyone’s different,” said the
26-year-old. “Dan’s definitely asking a lot more questions and he handles
situations differently but I was impressed with how we went at Hamilton; we
worked really well together.”
The understanding
between a driver and race engineer is crucial for teams, as it channels
first-hand information of the car’s performance back into the
garage.
“Everything the team
does is documented so really Dan should be able to open a book and know exactly
what’s going on before I even talk to him,” said Frosty, who drives the #5
Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon. “But as a driver I give him my personal
perspective, which means you’ve got to learn each other’s ways. We work hard
together between rounds to get to know each other and make sure we know where
each other is coming from.”
Winterbottom says
everything is now in place for him to make his best-ever championship challenge.
“Our strongest rounds are still to come,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll go well at
Perth because it’s smooth and fast, which suits our car. There are only six
corners but they are quite unique corners and I enjoy this track."
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