RICHO SCYTHES THROUGH THE PACK AS FROSTY SCORES PODIUM #2

March 9, 2008 Steve Richards today dispelled the myth that drivers cannot pass at Eastern Creek as he made up 20 places in this morning’s V8 Supercar round, with team-mate Mark Winterbottom scoring Ford Performance Racing’s second podium of the year.

Starting from 27th on the grid, Richo was up to 17th by the time the compulsory pit window opened. The Prodrive-run team opted to keep him out for the longest possible stint to take advantage of the clear track and the strategy was rewarded when Richards rejoined from the pit lane in eighth place, passing Lee Holdsworth three laps later for seventh.

Winterbottom, meanwhile, had already done all the hard work, rocketing from 10th to fourth off the grid and passing James Courtney to run in third before he had even completed a lap. Another great pit stop from the team bought him another place, meaning he will start today’s second race, which starts at 16:00, from second on the grid.

Mark Winterbottom
#5 Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon

“I had a cracker of a move on James Courtney on lap one! I was pleased with that, but it’s the starts where you make or break it and we got by a lot of people. I knew I wanted to pass [Lee] Holdsworth and [Greg] Murphy but you can never predict it because it’s such a hard place to start. When you get a good one here you’re rewarded.

“I could see Richo making up places. I thought the way my car was he’d be pretty similar. Looks like he had a pretty good start as well but to make up that many places without a mark on the car is pretty incredible.”

Steven Richards
#6 Castrol FPR Falcon

“The good thing about starting near the back is that you know you’ve got a fair advantage in car speed compared to the cars around you so you don’t have to do anything silly to gain the early places. You’ve just got to keep it clean until the pit stop.

“The car was much better in the early part of the race, which enabled me to make some good manoeuvres. I just pressed on and could use what I had. Pitting late meant our rear tyres were in better condition than the cars we were around so that gave me the edge in the second half.”

Tim Edwards
FPR Team Principal

“I said to one of the sponsors this morning that we wanted to finish in the top five with Frosty and the top 10 with Richo, so I’m obviously pretty pleased with this result. We demonstrated that we had a fast car in the race yesterday and the pit stop strategy worked out brilliantly today.

“Your strategy depends on the particular car and where it is on the track. If you’ve got a fast car, you just want to give it plenty of free track, which is why we had different approaches to the two drivers today. The guys just did a brilliant job today and we’re obviously very optimistic for this afternoon’s race.”

2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series - Round 2, Race 2
EASTERN CREEK INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

1 Will Davison, Ford Falcon BF
2 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon
3 Craig Lowndes, Ford Falcon BF
4 Russell Ingall, Holden Commodore VE
5 Jamie Whincup, Ford Falcon BF
6 Rick Kelly, Holden Commodore VE
7 Ford Performance Racing, Steven Richards, Castrol Ford Falcon