|
Bad
luck has not dampened the spirits of V8 Supercar Championship Series leader
Mark Winterbottom, who suffered a puncture on lap two of today’s race
at Winton Motor Raceway.
Frosty
went nearly 0.4s faster than Jamie Whincup to set pole for Ford Performance
Racing earlier in the day. A clean start came to nothing, however, as cars
filed past the Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon on lap two thanks to a
slow puncture picked up from track debris.
Frosty
came in for a tyre change as soon as the pit window opened but rejoined
dead last, managing to claw his way back to 21st over 40 laps.
Team-mate
Steve Richards was once again caught out by some over-ambitious passing
manoeuvres from fellow drivers. It saw the #6 Castrol FPR Falcon drop to 12th
from 6th on the grid but the team pulled off a sensational pit
stop strategy to move Richo up to fifth.
Race
two gets underway at 10:55 tomorrow.
Mark
Winterbottom
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
“I
knew on lap two I was in trouble but what can you do? They beat us when we
had a problem and they’ll be happy but they didn’t genuinely
beat us.
“We’ll
come out tomorrow and get some points because you’ve got to make the
best of a bad situation; it’s not the last round and there’s
plenty of points still to be had.
“They’ll
be licking their lips but it’s a good thing they get excited when we
go bad because it shows we’re getting to them!”
Steve
Richards
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
“I
got hit off the road again for the umpteenth time this year and it’s
really beginning to get on my nerves! We went long on pit strategy to try
and jump the cars that jumped us and came out wheel to wheel with Jason
[Richards] in fifth. We had the pace on him but not enough to get past.
“Starting
fifth is better than sixth but I’ve got to get through that first
corner without being served up; that’s my main aim tomorrow!”
Tim
Edwards
Team
Principal
“We
clearly had the fastest cars out there today but what with one car being
punted at the first corner and the other getting a puncture on lap two,
things didn’t go our way. Richo still has a realistic shot for the
podium because he fought back to get a top five position and we’ll
just have to be a little bit clever with Frosty’s pit strategy to get
him some clear track. Hopefully he’ll get back into the top ten in
race two and we’ll see how we go for race three.”
2008
V8 Supercar Championship Series - Round 8
QUALIFYING
|
1
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
|
1:22.9727
|
|
2
|
Jamie
Whincup
|
888
|
+0.3972
|
|
3
|
Will
Davison
|
DJR
|
+0.4223
|
|
4
|
Garth
Tander
|
HRT
|
+0.4417
|
|
5
|
Lee
Holdsworth
|
GRM
|
+0.4516
|
|
6
|
Steve
Richards
|
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
|
+0.4924
|
V8
Supercar Championship Series Round 8
Queensland
Raceway
RACE
ONE
|
1
|
Jamie
Whincup
|
888
|
|
2
|
Will
Davison
|
DJR
|
|
3
|
Garth
Tander
|
HRT
|
|
4
|
Jason
Richards
|
Tasman
|
|
5
|
Steve
Richards
|
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
|
|
3
|
Lee
Holdsworth
|
GRM
|
|
21
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
|
|