FPR Bathurst Thursday report

October 10, 2003 - Ford Credit FPR Falcon driver David Besnard had ended the first day of practice at Bathurst's Mount Panorama on a high by setting the second fastest time of yesterday's second 60 minute practice session.

Besnard's fast lap time of 2:09.2038s was only surpassed by Holden driver Greg Murphy (2:08.3282s) with Todd Kelly (Holden) rounding off the top three.

The 26 year old improved his lap times by more than two seconds during the competitive session. He was pleased with the set up changes made to his and co-driver Owen Kelly's FPR Falcon following the first Bathurst practice session.

"We went out on a good set of tyres that we had remaining from Sandown and the car felt very good compared to how we have started a few of our other races. We went in a completely different direction in our car set up that defied logic to some extent - but it worked. It wasn't good enough though, because we were still beaten by a second, but it is a very good start to our Bathurst campaign," Besnard said.

CAT FPR Falcon drivers Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton shared the driving duties during yesterday's second practice session, Seton driving first and making several set up improvements until handing the car over to his team mate. Lowndes set the 10th fastest lap of the session (2:10.5934s) thanks to these improvements and is confident of more speed being developed as the weekend progresses.

"Glenn made some good changes to the car during the first half of the session, giving me a well set up car to set a solid lap time in. We are improving all the time which is very encouraging," Lowndes said.

FPR GT drivers Adam Macrow and Darren Hossack completed a solid second practice session, their fastest lap of 2:12.4423s placing them 26th in the overall standings.

The 60 minute second practice session was held in cool and clear conditions, with no sign of the predicted inclement weather all day.

FPR will be back at Bathurst's majestic Mount Panorama circuit at 9:45am EST today (Friday October 10) for the third and final practice session before the start of qualifying at 12:55pm.

-fpr-