Frosty's Perth Podium

7 May 2018

Tickford show speed in Perth

Making its annual western road trip, Tickford Racing heads to Round 5 of the 2018 Supercars season at Barbagallo Raceway. The 2.42-kilometre circuit has been the site of noted success for the team in the past, with ten total race wins, including two weekend sweeps in 2008 and 2012. Mark Winterbottom (No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X) is the third winningest driver in Supercars history at the Western Australia circuit with seven of those wins, while Chaz Mostert (No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Falcon FG X) claimed his first win with the team at the track in 2014.

Cameron Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Falcon FG X) claimed his first Supercars pole at Barbagallo in 2016, a year after sweeping the Super2 weekend en route to his 2015 development series crown. Meanwhile rookie Richie Stanaway will look to write his own success starting this weekend, as he races at the seven turn circuit for the first time.

The Perth SuperSprint will consist of Races 11 and 12 on the Supercars season on May 5 and 6. As the second shortest circuit on the calendar, Perth will also utilise the short track, knockout-style qualifying format that debuted at Symmons Plains Raceway last month.

DRIVERS’ VIEW

No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Mark Winterbottom
“It’s good to be back on the road for another round, and I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of success at Perth over the years so I’m excited to head back there. The track is obviously very hard on the tyres so it’s a challenging track to get right on set up, but we’ve managed it before so we’ll look to recapture some of that magic this weekend. It’s obviously been a lean start to the year for us, but I always love being in the car, and the guys have made some good work getting ready for this weekend, so I’m looking forward to getting on track.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Mark Winterbottom
Practice 1: 14th, 56.20s
Practice 2: 6th, 55.21s
“It was good. We got a little bit of a bum read on the practice tyres, but then we put the green tyres on and the car started to make a bit more sense, so we’ve got some good data now. I’m really happy with how we went, that’s a good effort by the team to turn it around. We’ve only had four or five days to turn it around before this round, so today was a good result, and now we’ve got some good data. I definitely know where we’re losing time, so we’ll get the boys to work, tune her up and go tomorrow. It’s good to be in the ten, it saves us a set of tyres tomorrow, which is hugely important at this track. A good gain for sure.” 

TICKFORD RACING – PERTH SUPERSPRINT SATURDAY REPORT
5 May, 2018
On the fifth day of the fifth month of 2018, Mark Winterbottom’s No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X brought Tickford Racing its first podium of 2018 with a runner-up finish in Race 11 from Barbagallo Raceway. The result comes in Frosty’s 450th career Supercars race, and is his 117th career podium, the third most in Supercars history.

Winterbottom used a one-stop strategy to score his best finish of the season and led his first laps of 2018 on the day, and was followed home by Cameron Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Falcon FG X), who started from the front row and brought back a sixth place finish, his best since Race 4 at the Melbourne 400 in March. Chaz Mostert (No. 55 Supercheap Auto Ford Falcon FG X) was in the mix for a top five or even podium after his first stop, but was spun while entering the pit late on Lap 33, costing the Queenslander critical seconds on track. Mostert recovered to score a tenth place finish, his tenth top ten from eleven races in 2018.

Richie Stanaway’s rough rookie season continued on Saturday, as the Kiwi struggled with tyre degradation en route to a 23rd place finish. Like Winterbottom, Stanaway stopped just once in the 50-lap contest, and posted the third fastest race lap, but could not find the consistency in the car to move forward from his 17th place starting spot.

Supercars return to 2.42-kilometre Barbagallo Raceway Sunday at 9:15 a.m. AWST for Practice 4, which will determine the order for Race 12 qualifying at 11:20 a.m. 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Mark Winterbottom
Race 11 Quali: 4th, 54.73s
Race 11 Finish: 2nd
“The hard part with five races in nine weeks, when you’re struggling you don’t have a lot of time to actually do much development stuff. I think our engineers, in the last four weeks have had about two days off, and that’s a credit to them. We don’t drive any different, do anything different, but they’re putting in the hours, they’re listening to what we’re saying, and it’s a credit to them. I’m really happy for the team. To get a podium is great, to be able to feel the car again underneath you and stuff like that, that’s a good feeling as a driver. Three cars of the four were competitive today, Will (Davison, of Tickford customer team 23Red) was quick as well, so it was a good day for the team.”