All on track in Townsville

Ford Pepsi Max Crew duo Mark and Will are quietly confident of the performance of their factory Fords after the opening day of running in Townsville despite only using used hard tyres. 

 

The broader FPR team enjoyed a strong outing by heading three of the four 30-minute sessions. 

 

Marks co-driver Steve Richards lead the way in the co-driver only session which started the day before regular pilots Mark and Will were took over for the final two sessions.

 

Despite only using used hard tyres they were happy with the data they gathered ahead of tomorrows qualifying and opening 200-kilometre race. 

 

The earlier co-driver session also saw the race weekend debut of new signing Steve Owen who will partner Will in the endurance races. 

 

Owen completed two trouble-free sessions as he continues to acclimatise to the team.

 

Ended the day: 6th  

The tyre situation is not ideal on a Friday as everyone is on different compounds, with some being quite old and some being a lot newer so it is hard to work out where you sit. I wasnt entirely happy with the handling characteristics for most of the session but then you use a slightly better set of rubber and it changes things so out of about 40 laps of driving theres only really one that makes sense. Practice in the morning will be beneficial as we will have better tyres so tomorrow is really the day.

 

Ended the day: 9th 

I think we are in relatively good shape as while the car doesnt feel fantastic we can definitely tune it up. We were among the quickest cars on hard tyres, if not the fastest, but last year we ran on softs so your most recent experience is of having a lot more grip so that has to be taken into consideration. We can definitely improve it tonight and we are in pretty good shape. I think Mark and I were both where we expected to be on the tyres we used and we stuck to our plan and there is room for improvement.

 

Another typical Friday at a mixed tyre event but we cant be unhappy with three cars topping four of the sessions. It was great for the co-drivers to get a run this morning and as usual they were straight onto the pace and their feedback will assist us tonight. Tomorrow will give the true order as everyone will start using better tyres so we have a bit of work to do tonight but were happy with how the day progressed.