Frosty fast on hard tyres

19 June 2015

Winterbottom confident after practice in Darwin.

Pepsi Max Crew’s championship leader Mark Winterbottom finished a close second overall on the opening day of running Darwin, finishing a mere 0.08s behind pacesetter David Reynolds. 

Frosty’s time was set on the slower hard compound tyre making the feat just as impressive as Reynolds’ record-setting pace on softs. 

Chaz was close behind in fourth but did not enjoy his day on the newly-resurfaced Darwin layout as much as his team-mates. 

Earlier in the day he shared his car with co-driver Cameron Waters who logged valuable laps ahead of the Enduro Cup later in the season. 

Mark Winterbottom - #5 Pepsi Max PRA Ford:
“The soft tyre wasn’t of great quality that we used but on the new hard tyres at the end we were performing well. It will obviously be different tomorrow with new softs but today was great. New tyres, a new track and we could just drive the wheels off it. The real test comes tomorrow but we’re okay so far.”

Chaz Mostert - #6 Pepsi Max PRA Ford:
“The first session was a bit tough as I wasn’t expecting the car to do what it was doing. We tuned things up and made some changes and we were much better in the second, though not quite where we ultimately should be. The good thing is Mark is quick on hard tyres so we have some good data to look at. To be well inside the top 10 on a track that isn’t one of my favourites is not a bad start.”

Tim Edwards – Team Principal: 
“We didn’t quite know what we’d get here with the new surface but we’ve adapted well so far and the pace has been impressive, especially Dave’s two session-topping efforts. Both Mark and Chaz were around the pointy end and on both tyre compounds so we’ve done about as well as we could hope at this early stage.”