Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards battled the blustery conditions at Phillip Island to record the fastest time during practice for the L&H 500, event nine of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series, at Victoria’s Phillip Island this afternoon.
The FPR Racing Ford Falcon V8 of Winterbottom and Richards
“The Castrol Orrcon Steel car was really good in that session it is nice to finish up on top, now the aim is to carry this speed on throughout the weekend,” said Winterbottom.
With this weekend’s event being the first endurance race of the year Winterbottom and Richards are sharing the driving duties aboard the #6 Castrol Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon. Alongside the pair in the Orrcon Steel-backed FPR team is Dean Canto and Luke Youlden who will campaign the #5 Orrcon Steel Castol FPR Falcon across the weekend and at Bathurst next month.
“The qualifying format tomorrow allows both drivers to have input and considering you both have to do a good job to win the race, I think it is good that both drivers to be able to be a part qualifying,” said Winterbotttom.
The same four Orrcon Steel-backed FPR drivers took to the circuit for the endurance events last year making the team the only one in pit lane to have a completely unchanged line-up from last year’s endurance events.
Richards completed the majority of the early running of today’s practice session before Winterbottom took over the wheel of the #6 Castrol Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon. The time of 1m33.7901s, set by Winterbottom, was marginally faster than the second quickest of the day set by Jamie Whincup.
“Finishing fastest on Friday is a great way to start the weekend,” said Richards.
“This is one of the circuits that we go to where the cars are really affected by the wind direction, so tomorrow we’ll have to set the sail on a different direction depending on the wind.”
Luke Youlden on board the #5 Orrcon Steel Castrol FPR Falcon at Phillip Island
Canto and Youlden endured an issue with the power steering on the #5 Orrcon Steel Castol FPR Falcon midway through today’s session before finishing the day in 24th position on the timing charts.
“Today was all about getting my eye in but it didn’t quite end up as planned,” said Canto.
“We had a few issues with a power steering hose which cost is some time during the middle of the session. At the moment we’re battling with locking the rear brakes on turn in which is something we will have to work on overnight.
Tomorrow’s action consists of a qualifying session and 14-lap ‘supersprint’ race for each driver to decide the grid for Sunday’s 500km encounter.
PRACTICE
1. #6 M.Winterbottom/S.Richards 1:33.7901
2. #888 C.Lowndes/J.Whincup 1:33.8128
3. #8 C.McConville/J.Richards 1:33.9456
4. #25 J.Bright/K.Reindler 1:34.0502
5. #22 C.Baird/P.Dumbrell 1:34.0747
6. #111 F.Coulthard/M.Patrizi 1:34.0849
7. #9 A.Davison/S.Van Gisbergen 1:34.1021
8. #18 W.Luff/J.Webb 1:34.2492
9. #7 R.Kelly/T.Kelly 1:34.3062
10. #2 W.Davison/G.Tander 1:34.4020
24. #5 D.Canto/L.Youlden 1:35.7747
Championship Points After Race 16 of 26
1. Jamie Whincup 2007
2. Will Davison 1824
3. Garth Tander 1479
4. Craig Lowndes 1478
5. Steven Johnson 1374
6. Mark Winterbottom 1332
7. Lee Holdsworth 1269
8. Russell Ingall 1187
9. James Courtney 1154
10. Michael Caruso 1134
16. Steve Richards 1011
