Symmons Plains: FPR Saturday notes

FRUSTRATION PEAKS DESIRE AT FPR

Frustration will hopefully fuel a podium performance in tomorrow's Tasmanian racing after a series of setbacks saw Ford Performance Racing finish 15th and 16th at Symmons Plains today.

Steve Richards had the team gasping as he skimmed the barriers at turn three during this morning's qualifying shoot-out. The close call spoilt his lap and he started this afternoon's race from ninth on soft tyres.

From there, the Castrol FPR Falcon was soon fighting for a podium and pitted from the lead on lap 28, rejoining in front of Steve Johnson for what was effectively third place. The pair came together whilst trying to get past back-marker Tony D'Alberto, however, allowing Johnson track position.

Richo recovered and was right on the back of Johnson's DJR car almost immediately. It proved a fruitless task, however, as car six was called back into the pits for a top-up after stewards ruled the mandatory 50 litres of E85 had not been dispensed.

FPR team-mate Mark Winterbottom missed out on the top-ten shoot-out, his fastest time not eligible thanks to a red flag. Starting from 12th in the race, he pitted from eighth for soft tyres on lap 17, but disaster struck when a cross-threaded wheel-nut delayed his exit. He rejoined a lap down but the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon was handling well and Frosty passed ten cars to unlap himself and finish 16th.

The FPR cars will be back on track for V8 Supercar Championship Series qualifying at 10.35 tomorrow.

Tim Edwards
Team Principal

"The regulation is that you have got to put 50 litres fuel into the car at the stop; we only got about 48 litres in. Something went wrong with the fuel rig. It's a timed system and although we put exactly the same amount of time in as we did with the other car, there's no flow metre so we didn't know only 48 litres had gone in. The scrutineer comes and checks the tower after every pitstop."

Steve Richards
Castrol FPR Falcon

"It's disappointing; not just for me but for everyone. That car had so much promise but unfortunately it's just a bit of a bummer.

"When I came out of the pits initially, D'Alberto was driving down the middle of the road; he blocked and I faked to the inside and sat behind him. Stevie Johnson went to the outside; he must have clipped his wing mirror down the Armco when he went past because there was barely a car's width there. He obviously went too deep and crashed into D'Alberto.

"We used soft tyres for the whole race and they're still in good nick; there's no reason why we can't use them for one of the stints tomorrow as well."

Mark Winterbottom
Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon

"There's not much you can do when something like that happens; just try and push on. The car was really quick so it's a shame that we lost that time. We needed a safety car to come out and put us back in position.

"The slow stop cost me heaps of places; I was actually pretty competitive behind Jamie Whincup quite early. It looked like he needed a safety car as well."

-credit: fpr