V8 Supercars Race 1 Quoteboard

Jamie Whincup (#88 TeamVodafone Commodore VE II – 1st)

“I’ve been coming here for many years but I’ve never been able to snag a win until today.

“We had a good strategy which gave us track position. I owe it to the guys in the garage …starting on soft tyres I was able to clear out in the first half of the race.

“We may not be as lucky tomorrow, so we might have to change our strategy up before the next race!”

Shane van Gisbergen (#9 SP Tools Falcon FG – 3rd)

“My second sector in the shootout lap hurt me, but starting from the second row ensured we were going to be in the action. We started on the hard tyre, which in hindsight I probably wouldn't do again when you look at how Jamie went.

“I had a bit of a coming together with Craig (Lowndes) which allowed Garth (Tander) to get through but once things settled down the car was really nice and then even better when we switched to the soft tyre - but by then Jamie was well and truly down the road.

“We have a good package and will start from third again tomorrow so I’m confident we can take what we learnt today and go one or two better.”

Alex Davison (#4 IRWIN Tools Falcon FG – 4th)

“It was a pretty good day but one of the toughest races I've had for a while. There was plenty going on, particularly when I was trying to fight off those other boys on the soft tyres at the end. There were a couple of small issues with the car, a bit of overheating, struggled with my brakes, tyres going off – nothing major but enough to keep me busy and make me really focus on not making a mistake.

“Towards the end with Rick (Kelly) I knew I was walking a tightrope with regards to the rules we have to follow but I did what I had to and kept it fair. It was a great result for the team today with all cars showing plenty of pace – bring on tomorrow!”

Rick Kelly (#15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VE II – 5th)

“It was a really enjoyable race and an improvement on our qualifying position. We got a couple of positions off the line at the start and we had really good pace on the hard tyres.

“When we came out of the pits on soft tyres I got held up and we were not able to pass. I was blocked on every corner by Davo (Alex Davison), I don’t know how he didn’t get a black flag. But that's the way it is. It’s the GP so I'm not going to be too rude and slam into his door trying to pass when he is blocking like that.

“I’m a little disappointed to not finish fourth but it’s a great result for the team to finish fifth.”

Jason Richards (#14 Team BOC Commodore VE II – 7th)

"I'm here to enjoy myself so I had a good stab. I have to say, so far, it's been an excellent weekend: third in practice, ninth in qualifying, P5 in the shoot-out, seventh in the race and I was still managing to reel in the guys ahead. All in all, I'm just rapt. I'm having fun and that's what it's all about.

"We assumed the soft tyres were a lot faster and would last longer but I think I actually did my fastest lap on the control tyre so we got strategy a bit wrong. I actually struggled on the soft tyres; the car just works a lot better on hards. It's interesting because last year it was the other way around."

Mark Winterbottom (#5 Orrcon FPR Falcon FG – 8th)

“Race one completed and it didn’t really give us the best result so we need to work on things for tomorrow. We tried a few different things with our set-up but tomorrow is another day and I get a fresh set of Dunlop soft tyres and will be starting from eighth so we go at it again tomorrow and see what we can come up with.”

Jason Bright (#8 Team BOC Commodore VE II – 10th)

“We didn't have a good first lap and we didn't have a good pit stop. Then we got screwed by Murph and lost a spot to Jonathan Webb trying to pass him. If we'd not lost all that time, we would have been right on Frosty but it would have been hard to get much further up than that."

Will Davison (#6 Trading Post FPR Falcon – 11th)

“It was a pretty frustrating day but again we learnt more about the car and that is what it is all about. We qualified OK but then in the race just had too much oversteer on both the soft and hard tyres so it wasn’t much fun. Thankfully we have time before race two to sort these issues out.”

David Reynolds (#16 Stratco Commodore VE II – 12th)

“Today was OK for us. But it’s a bit dark out there at the end … it was hard to see anything!

“It was a good race for the Stratco Commodore. We went forward and to make it to 12th was decent. We should have made a few more spots but we lost time in the pits. Everyone pitted when I did and there was a lot of pit lane congestion. We lost time there so we could have had a top 10 - we will try for that tomorrow.”

Greg Murphy (#11 Pepsi Max Crew Commodore VE II – 15th)

“We were not able to be fast enough to make the most of each tyre. We didn't go far enough on the soft tyres when we started on them and then we were just not 'pacey' enough for long enough to get the gain we needed for when we went to hard tyres.

“That cost us three or four spots and we probably should have been around 10th place if we had been able to be faster on the soft tyre. We didn't go forward enough and make enough progress. When the others swapped tyres we went back further than the strategy would have hoped for considering there was no Safety Cars.”

Tim Slade (#47 Lucky 7 Falcon FG – 23rd)

“Speed-wise the day was really, really good. We had the fastest last sector in the shootout so we were looking pretty good today. In the race I was hustled at the start a little from people trying big moves so I just let that be and concentrated on looking after my tyres which paid off later when I was able to climb up into second place. Then came the pitstop and the drama with the wheel clip and that was pretty much the end of my race.”

Todd Kelly (#7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore VE II – 25th)

“It's been one of those weekend so far for me. I got a good first lap in and passed about 10 cars. A lot of the guys in front bunched up and I happened to be in the right spot at the right time and made up a lot of spots.

“On the second lap there was a car that was spraying oil everywhere and I copped it. From half way around on the second lap I couldn’t see through the windscreen, so I tried to get out of the way but got sent into the fence and it bent the steering.

“I had to pit to get the oil off the windscreen. Our race started well but ended badly.”

Paul Dumbrell (#55 Bottle-O Falcon FG – 26th)

“It really hasn’t been the best couple of days for The Bottle-O Falcon and coming off the pace we had in Adelaide it is disappointing not to be at the front. We will work on the car over night and try and overcome the shift issue we’ve had and get some meaningful data ahead of Hamilton in a few weeks time. Hopefully we can get somewhere near the front tomorrow.”

Craig Lowndes (#888 TeamVodafone Commodore VE II – 27th)

“I actually got a fantastic start today. I think I am finally getting on top of my starts. We ran an alternative strategy to Jamie, starting on the hard tyre option so it was always going to be difficult to hold off the guys on softs. Unfortunately in the tussle of hard racing Shane (van Gisbergen) and I touched and I broke my steering. I am looking forward to starting on softs tomorrow and hopefully gaining some track position.”

-source: v8 supercars