Lots to race for "Says Frosty"

Frosty qualifies 2nd finishing 3rd in Race 1, confident for tomorrow

Race strategy was thrown into chaos at Ford Performance Racing this afternoon after Mark Winterbottom was forced to pit early with an oil-covered windscreen at Queensland Raceway.

Frosty described the oil slick as "like driving with a blanket over the windscreen" and ultimately the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon slipped off the greasy track on lap three.

"I told the crew I had to pit and they told me to hang on but I knew I couldn't," said Frosty, who picked up the oil from Jamie Whincup's Team Vodafone car. "It was all about conserving the tyres after that."

Originally planning to pit later and swap onto control tyres, the team gambled on the short-lived soft tyres lasting the duration of the race. A nervous 30 laps later and Frosty had battled his way back to P3 for a welcome podium for the team.

"FPR should be up the front and we always thought we could be," said Frosty. "This time last year we were leading but dropped off a bit. There's a lot left to race for and this is the time of year that you want to do well."

Team-mate Steve Richards saved his soft tyres for tomorrow's race and still managed to finish 11th in the Castrol FPR Falcon, placing him in prime position for the 200km.

"The track was absolutely coated in oil from halfway down the straight in through turn three and up to turn four and you had to take a totally different line to get through," said Richo. "It wasn't ideal and guys were spearing off everywhere.

"It's great to have the softs tomorrow, but first and foremost we have to qualify well. If we qualify inside the top five we've got a really good shot at winning the race."

Sunday Qualifying begins at 10:15am.

QueenslandHouseandLand.com 300
QUEENSLANDRACEWAY IPSWICH
Race 15 Qualifying
01. Jamie Whincup, 888, 1:10.8529*
02. Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, +0.0061
03. James Courtney, DJR, +0.0649
04. Garth Tander, HRT, +0.1186
05. Craig Lowndes, 888, +0.1359
06. Steven Johnson, DJR, +0.1914

16. Steve Richards, Castrol FPR Falcon, +0.4458

QueenslandHouseandLand.com 300
QUEENSLANDRACEWAY IPSWICH
Race 15
1. Jamie Whincup, 888
2. James Courtney, DJR
3. Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
4. Steven Johnson, DJR
5. Fabian Coulthard, PCR
6. Todd Kelly, Kelly Racing

12. Steve Richards, Castrol FPR Falcon