FPR SEEKS A FLYING START TO THE NEW SEASON IN ADELAIDE

February 21, 2008 Ford Performance Racing (FPR) is planning to pick up where it left off in the V8 Supercar Championship as this years competition blasts off at the famous Clipsal 500 tomorrow.

The Prodrive-run team is riding high after an impressive finishing run in 2007, winning in Bahrain, and has since proved its 2008 competitiveness in an open test at Winton last week.

FPR Falcon drivers Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom have been in training to deal with the soaring temperatures expected for this weekend’s two extended 250km races at the spectacular Adelaide Parklands Street Circuit, with both attending a week-long pre-season boot camp.

Richards has a strong record of success at the Clipsal 500, which is this year celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Castrol FPR Falcon driver has scored three podium finishes since 1998 and of the six drivers in this year's field to compete in every Adelaide 500, the Castrol FPR Falcon driver is the only one to have finished each of the eighteen 250 kilometre legs.

After a top four qualifying performance and a top five race finish last year in the Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon, Winterbottom will be chasing his first Clipsal 500 podium result this weekend. The 26-year-old, who made his V8 Supercar debut here in 2004, last tasted the victory champagne at Clipsal in 2003 when he dominated the V8 Supercar Development Series round.

An amazing 280,000 fans are expected to attend Clipsal 500 this weekend, with several million television viewers tuning in to the two exciting races on the Seven Network across nationwide.

#6 Steve Richards
"The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide is an incredible way to kick start the season. I remember driving down the pit straight in 1999, struggling to believe that Adelaide and Avesco had pulled this event off! After all, only four years earlier (1995) it had hosted a Formula One event. Now the stage was all ours. Ten years on it has become the jewel in the 'success' crown of the V8 Supercar Championship. Having finished the race on every occasion and getting to the podium a few times, nothing would mean more to me than winning this event for Ford and FPR in my number 6 Castrol FPR Falcon in 2008. This year FPR have every chance that one of our cars can make this a reality."

#5 Mark Winterbottom
"Clipsal is massive! The whole city gets behind it and people that don’t know anything about the racing come out and hopefully get hooked! They’re going to see carnage this year! Street circuits are great racing; you get loads of safety cars that bunch the field back up so it’s always close! Turn eight is notorious: 250kph, sixth gear, off camber, surrounded by a couple of big concrete walls. One mistake and it’s weekend over! You can do a lot of damage so it’s a corner where you need to have a lot of respect.

“Last year we were expected to do well at the beginning of the season but this year we’re in a better position. That’s because we had a good result at the end of ’07 so we know we can do it again.“

FPR Team Principal, Tim Edwards
"I spent 10 years coming here for the F1 and it’s got exactly the same atmosphere now; in fact it’s probably bigger here than it ever was in F1.

"Most teams talk about the cabin temperature of the cars at Adelaide because it’s the most grueling for the drivers. With 40 degrees outside the cabin can get up to 65 degrees plus and there’s no driver change like in the other long races so it’s very hard on the drivers."