Driver thoughts from Gold Coast 600

21 October 2018

With the 2018 Enduro Cup drawing to a conclusion, Tickford Racing sets its sights on Round 14 of the Supercars season at Gold Coast 600. The weekend’s twin 300-kilometre contests will be Races 26 and 27 of the year, and the final endurance round of the year. 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Mark Winterbottom
“Bathurst was a tough one, and when you have a tough one you’re always looking to the next chance to improve so I’m glad to be getting back in the car this weekend. Street courses have been some of our strongest points this year, and Dean and I had a good weekend there last year. We’ll give it a red hot crack, and hopefully we can mix it up at the front all weekend.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Practice 1: 1m11.93s, 15th
Practice 2 (co-drivers): 1m12.58s, 22nd
Practice 3: 1m10.99s, 15th 

Mark Winterbottom
“I didn’t get a run on greens in, I got two kerb strikes on both my last laps. We probably would have ended up seventh or eighth, I reckon, without that, but I know where we’re weak, so we just need to try and tidy it up. Unfortunately I got a bit greedy on two of the kerbs. We had a bit of a change in car that handled differently and caught me out. I think we’re in the top ten, but it still needs a bit more pace. Thankfully that wasn’t qualifying, but I’ve got to do the lap as well, so we’ll try to tidy it up.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Race 26 Quali: 1m10.75s, 12th
Top Ten Shootout: n/a
Race 26 Finish: 7th 

Mark Winterbottom
“We just stayed out of trouble. We had a clean run. We didn’t have the pace, but we had a pretty clean run. Dean did a great job, he had to double stint because of the Safety Car, so he did a majority of the laps. He got us up to about ninth, we got a couple in the pits, and then we held on. We need more pace, clearly. The 55 guys did a good job, it’d be nice to have some of that. That was the standout package today, so we’ll see what we can do tonight.”

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 5 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Race 27 Quali: 1m11.01s, 14th 
Top Ten Shootout: n/a
Mark Winterbottom

“It was pretty dangerous, but it was probably the right decision not to race, otherwise there would have been a bit of a crash, so they got the right decision. My car, in the wet, is quite strong, and I was looking forward to it raining. We should have started further up today, but we had kerb strikes in quali which was a bit of a mess up. We would have comfortably been in the top ten easy. I didn’t get a crack in the dry to see what the race car was like, but at least our cars are straight. We’ve got a four day turnaround so if you crash in those conditions, the boys work non-stop all week, so it’s the right call.” 

Back to news