Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards had a challenging time at the Norton 360 Sandown Challenge, races 13 and 14 in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series, in Melbourne across the weekend.

The Orrcon Steel-backed pair pushed hard during both of the two races held around the 3.1km circuit over the weekend to finish as the 13th (Richards) and 15th (Winterbottom) highest point scorers.

Winterbottom narrowly missed out on a berth in the top ten shootout yesterday before going on to record a 12th place finish aboard the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon. During today’s race Winterbottom showed some good late race speed to gain a handful of spots over the closing laps before finishing in 16th spot.

After driving a calculated race during yesterday’s 33-lap journey to record a 14th place finish Richards took advantage of the extra grip provided by the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx “Sprint” tyre during the opening sector of today’s longer race.

By lap 10 Richards had found his way inside the top ten and despite battling with a minor brake issue over the second half of the race pushed on to record a solid result in 12th place.

Team-mates Will Davison and Garth Tander split the race wins over the weekend with Davison winning from pole position yesterday and Tander crossing the line first this afternoon.

At the halfway mark of the 2009 Series Jamie Whincup is leading the way on 1791 points. Davison is in second place on 1674 ahead of Tander (1416), Craig Lowndes (1350) and Steven Jonhson (1194). Winterbottom remains in seventh on 1083 points and Richards is 17th on 843.

The next event on the Championship Schedule is the Queensland 300 at the Queensland Raceway on August 21-23, an event that Winterbottom won last year.

Mark Winterbottom – #5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
“The Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon was quite good, especially on a lighter fuel load later in today’s race which meant I was able to gain a few spots, but we’ve got a bit of a gap between us and the frontrunners at the moment and we’ve got to work hard as a team to close that gap,” said Winterbottom.

“In both races over the weekend I got caught behind some slower cars on heavy fuel loads which made life hard as it is hard to pass around here.

“We got caught out a bit when we had to ‘double stack’ in the pit lane during one of safety car periods in today’s race but it was the best decision under the circumstances.

“It appears that we have made some improvements since the last event at Townsville and now I’m looking forward to some further improvements, which we will be able to try during a test day next week, prior the next event in Queensland.”

Steve Richards – #6 Orrcon Steel-backed Castrol FPR Falcon
“After yesterday’s race I was confident on a good result today and I did improve my finishing position, so that is a positive,” said Richards.

“The car was a bit of a handful on colder tyres, which made life hard on the restarts (today’s race had four safety car periods), especially when the guys behind you are on newer or the soft option tyres.

“Late in the race I started to battle with a braking issue, probably because I was pushing pretty hard to hold my position, which meant that there was no margin for error and I couldn’t press on as hard as I would have liked to.”

Championship Points
After race 14 of 26 races
1. Jamie Whincup – 1791 points
2. Will Davison – 1674
3. Garth Tander – 1416
4. Craig Lowndes – 1350
5. Steven Johnson – 1194
6. Lee Holdsworth – 1116
7. Mark Winterbottom – 1083
8. Rick Kelly – 992
9. Russell Ingall – 989
10. Michael Caruso – 984
17. Steve Richards – 843

Results

Race 14 of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series
1. #2 Garth Tander
2. #22 Will Davison
3. #1 Jamie Whincup
4. #14 Cameron McConville
5. #888 Craig Lowndes
6. #8 Jason Richards
7. #55 Tony D’Alberto
8. #18 James Courtney
9. #3 Jason Bargwanna
10. #10 Paul Dumbrell
12. #6 Steve Richards
16. #5 Mark Winterbottom

QUALIFYING
1. #22 Will Davison 1:09.7472
2. #18 James Courtney 1:09.8677
3. #17 Steven Johnson 1:09.9279
4. #15 Rick Kelly 1:09.9397
5. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:09.9407
6. #2 Garth Tander 1:09.9818
7. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1:09.9876
8. #34 Michael Caruso 1:09.9967
9. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:09.9972
10. #51 Greg Murphy 1:09.0508
15. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:10.1698
16. #6 Steve Richards 1:10.1921

Race 13 of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series
1. #22 Will Davison
2. #18 James Courtney
3. #888 Craig Lowndes
4. #7 Todd Kelly
5. #34 Michael Caruso
6. #1 Jamie Whincup
7. #39 Russell Ingall
8. #17 Steven Johnson
9. #24 David Reynolds
10. #111 Fabian Coulthard
12. #5 Mark Winterbottom
14. #6 Steve Richards

TOP TEN SHOOTOUT
1. #22 Will Davison 1:09.7185
2. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:10.1085
3. #17 Steven Johnson 1:10.2992
4. #18 James Courtney 1:10.3040
5. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:10.3138
6. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:10.3181
7. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:10.3325
8. #34 Michael Caruso 1:10.4352
9. #39 Russell Ingall 1:10.7648
10. #7 Todd Kelly 1:10.7682

QUALIFYING
1. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:09.6670
2. #17 Steven Johnson 1:09.7273
3. #7 Todd Kelly 1:09.7552
4. #18 James Courtney 1:09.7749
5. #22 Will Davison 1:09.8422
6. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:09.8673
7. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:09.8991
8. #39 Russell Ingall 1:09.9908
9. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:10.0029
10. #34 Michael Caruso 1:10.0059
11. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:10.0382
13. #6 Steve Richards 1:10.0499