Winton: SBR Friday report

SBR Again Lead Ford Charge at Winton

Stone Brothers Racing again flew the Ford flag in the opening practice for the seventh round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Winton Motor Raceway in North East Victoria today.

Championship leader Marcos Ambrose was second fastest in his Pirtek Falcon behind Mark Skaife, while teammate Russell Ingall slotted into fourth in his Caltex Havoline Ford.

It was a big improvement on last year's opening practice at Winton when Ambrose and Ingall were 11th and 15th respectively after Friday's 90-minute session.

Despite the Friday result, Ambrose went on to claim pole the following day and eventually the race -- a performance he is hoping to repeat this weekend!

Today's 90-minute session was interrupted for a couple of red-flag periods and was hampered by rain in the dying stages.

"I am very comfortable with our result today," said Ambrose. "The car is OK, but certainly not fantastic and I think there is plenty of improvement left in us for tomorrow.

"I am not sure what happened to the track, but no one really went faster after the first half a dozen or so laps.

"It has been great to grab pole here the last couple of years and it would be nice to make it three in a row tomorrow."

Ingall, who sits sixth in the championship battle, will be chasing his second V8 Supercar career pole tomorrow -- ironically the first came at Winton in 2001.

"I certainly would not be swapping last year's Friday time for today's," admitted Ingall. "It is nice to have the car roll off the truck here and be competitive straight away, especially with so many Holden teams having this as their test track.

"You always go out there chasing the pole, but unfortunately it has eluded me many times. Maybe we need to get rid of the shootout altogether, now there's not a bad idea."

There will be qualifying and a top 10 shootout tomorrow followed by a 300km mini-endurance race on Sunday.

-sbr-