FPR TO START FROM ROW ONE

Saturday, July 19, 2008 Ford Performance Racings Mark Winterbottom will start this afternoons race from P2 after a strong qualifying performance at Queensland Raceway this morning.

The Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon driver posted a time of 1:10.7438, just 0:00.0087 off pole-sitter James Courtney and comfortably ahead of main championship rivals Garth Tander in sixth and Jamie Whincup in ninth.

Team-mate Steve Richards made an error at turn three on his hot lap and qualified 11th, still just 0:00.3539 off the fastest lap in a session that saw the top 26 cars covered by less than a second.

“It was tight today and that tiny error cost me a great deal,” said Richo, who drives the Castrol FPR Falcon. “It’s definitely not ideal to be starting from row six and we could be a lot further up. It’s going to compromise our weekend, but there’s no reason we can’t recover. We’ve done it before.”

V8 Supercar Championship Series Round 7
Queensland Raceway
QUALIFYING

1. James Courtney (SBR) 1:10.7351
2. Mark Winterbottom (#5 Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon) 1:10.7438
3. Russell Ingall (PMM) 1:10.8066
4. Craig Lowndes (888) 1:10.8503
5. Mark Skaife (HRT) 1:10.8887
6. Garth Tander (HRT) 1:10.9096

 11. Steve Richards (#6 Castrol FPR Falcon) 1:11.0890