Pair of podiums on the plains

29 March 2014

Frosty finishes 3rd and 2nd in Saturday's races at Symonns Plains

Ford Pepsi Max Crew claimed its first two podiums of the season with a well-earned second and third place in Tasmania for Frosty which elevates him to fourth in the championship. Race 1 Frosty made the most of strong race pace and incidents ahead to claim his first podium of the season with third. He chased, caught and passed Russell Ingall and while he caught James Courtney in second place he was unable to make a pass stick. Chaz struggled to get his tyre pressures up early and dropped to the mid-pack before stabilising and finishing 13th. Race 2 Frosty went one better in race two after being elevated to the front row following a penalty for Craig Lowndes. He avoided the early safety car-inducing carnage and spent most of the 42-laps trading lap times with eventual race winner Jamie Whincup the pair rarely separated by more than one-tenth of a second. Chaz finished where he started despite being forced to take a Pit Lane Penalty after contact with Rick Kelly. Starting 19th he moved up to 11th but that was as far as he would progress. While he was unhappy to finish low in the order his pace was encouraging throughout. DRIVERS VIEW Mark Winterbottom - #5 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: Qualifying Race 4: 6th Result Race 4: 3rd Qualifying Race 5: 2nd Result Race 5: 2nd It was a good day and qualifying sixth and third [which became second] and then racing forward in both was promising. Our rivals are quick but we will try and bridge the gap a little more overnight. The car is pretty close to where it needs to be so we will at tuning it and trying to have a better day tomorrow. It was nice for my engineer Grant to have two podiums as we are building a new relationship and strong results give us both confidence. Chaz Mostert - #6 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: Qualifying Race 4: 9th Result Race 4: 3rd Qualifying Race 5: 19th Result Race 5: 19th It was a difficult race to end the day as even though I started 20th I had picked off five cars by the hairpin and thought I was in for a big day. We made our way to the edge of the top 10 in spite of quite a few cars trying to block me. We then unfortunately got in an incident and received a Pit Lane Penalty for it so that harmed our result. Weve got much better speed though and the car is the best its been so I am looking forward to qualifying tomorrow where I think we can be on the first three rows. Tim Edwards Team Principal: Two podiums today is the result of a concerted team effort in recent weeks so it is pleasing to return to the pointy end of the field. While we obviously aim to win the upturn in performance is encouraging for the team and our fans. Chaz had his own issues today but car speed was strong so we are all looking forward to Sundays longer race. TASMANIA 400 RESULTS RACE 4 1) Jamie Whincup Triple Eight 2) James Courtney HRT 3) Mark Winterbottom Ford Pepsi Max Crew 13) Chaz Mostert Ford Pepsi Max Crew RACE 5 1) Jamie Whincup Triple Eight 2) Mark Winterbottom Ford Pepsi Max Crew 3) Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Racing 19) Chaz Mostert Ford Pepsi Max Crew DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS 1) Craig Lowndes Triple Eight: 382 points 2) Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Racing: 336 3) Jamie Whincup Triple Eight: 324 4) Mark Winterbottom Ford Pepsi Max Crew: 322 5) James Courtney HRT: 297 22) Chaz Mostert Ford Pepsi Max Crew: 106 TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS 1) Triple Eight: 731 points 2) HRT: 571 3) Brad Jones Racing: 483 4) Ford Pepsi Max Crew: 430