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With
half the season gone, Steve Richards is optimistic of delivering a
championship 1-2 for Ford Performance Racing as he prepares for Winton
Motor Raceway this weekend.
he
#6 Castrol FPR driver is currently a close fifth in the V8 Supercar
Championship Series, with a round win under his belt, but says he could
have been fighting for the lead with team-mate Mark Winterbottom were it
not for the effect of one team.
“The
reason we haven’t gone as well as we could have in three out of the
last four race meetings is because of an HRT car’s
involvement,” said Richo, who is just 13 points off fourth-place Rick
Kelly in the championship standings. “Alright, the Garth [Tander,
HRT] thing at Sandown was Craig Lowndes [888] as well, but there was
certainly not much I could have done about it. On each occasion I’ve
made clean passes, particularly at Barbagallo and Queensland
Raceway.”
Those
two rounds saw HRT’s Mark Skaiffe spin Richo from behind. On both
occasions he recovered to finish the race, but lost vital points in the
championship battle.
“I’m
hoping it’s purely coincidence and nothing more because I do have a
lot of respect for Skaiffie as a person and a driver,” said Richo.
“I've always thought he is the one guy you never have to second guess
because he’s very fair; you know that if you’ve had a good move
on him, he’ll give you room.”
The
championship lead is still in Richo's sights as the season heads into the
second half at Winton Raceway and the double Bathurst winner says not to
rule him out of the fight, adding that he'll be steering clear of the red
cars this weekend.
FPR
will be on track at Winton Motor Raceway tomorrow (Friday) at 12.35 for the
first practice. .
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