FPR fastest Ford in Qualifying

9 October 2009

Frosty in the race for Pole

Mark Winterbottom was Ford’s lead qualifier in today’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, finishing fourth fastest.

The result puts him in the running for pole position at The Mountain if he can nail the one-lap in tomorrow’s nerve-racking shoot-out format.

“I’m just looking forward to the shoot out now,” he said. “It’s one of the best feelings, owning this track and having it to yourself. 

“The last two years we’ve been the last car out [having run fastest on Friday] and that worked well for us but I’m just going to approach it the same as normal; it’s about nailing it on one lap.” 

The Castrol Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon was lapping consistently throughout today’s Practice and Qualifying sessions and Frosty and co-driver Steve Richards say there should be further improvements tomorrow.

“The car’s capable of going faster,” said Richo, who watched from the Ford Performance Racing garage. “Frosty didn’t really get any use out of his last set of tyres; the red flag came out at the end and he wasn’t able to put in a time.”

The sister car, driven for qualifying by Dean Canto, was improving throughout today’s practice and qualifying sessions as he and co-driver Luke Youlden got used to running on green tyres. They finished 18th quickest, a similar starting position to last year when they scored a top-ten finish for Ford Performance Racing.

“We were trying to make the car faster and Dean was reasonably happy with it but there were a couple of areas where we were down a tenth or two,” said Youlden. “That red flag at the end caught us out; we’d made a couple of late changes and didn’t get the chance to put them to the test. I’m not sure how much it would have jumped us up, but obviously the times are very close.”

Cars will be on track tomorrow from 10:00 for practice before Frosty takes on the top ten shoot out at 15:45.

Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 
2009 V8 Supercars - Race 18 - BATHURST
Qualifying
1. Jason Richards / Cameron McConville, BJR, 2:07.2230*
2. Garth Tander / Will Davison, HRT, +0.0800
3. Lee Holdsworth / Michael Caruso, GRM, +0.2136
4. Mark Winterbottom / Steve Richards, Castrol Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, +0.2727
18. Dean Canto / Luke Youlden, Orrcon Steel Castrol FPR Falcon, +1.1889

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