FPR Winton race report

Ford Performance Racing (FPR) has recovered from an initially tough weekend at Winton to secure a top ten finish for CAT FPR BA Falcon driver Craig Lowndes. Ford Credit FPR Falcon driver Glenn Seton secured a 12th place race debut for the team's newest car and FPV FPR Falcon pilot David Besnard coped with a damaged car to finish 24th at today's fourth round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series held at Winton in Victoria.

Lowndes drove a superb race, racing as high as third by the three quarter stage of the race. A rear impact from Holden driver Greg Murphy on the 62nd lap ended his charge, sending the CAT FPR Falcon driver into the infield. The subsequent damage slowed Lowndes' pace significantly. Despite re-joining the race in 4th position and a pit lane drive through penalty handed to Murphy, the FPR driver fell through the order to 12th by the chequered flag.

Seton drove a solid race in his brand new Ford Credit FPR BA Falcon, gaining a fantastic start and climbing from 18th on the grid to 13th by his first scheduled pit stop. Heading towards a top ten finish, a call for him to pit on lap 40 in line with a Safety Car period was aborted, forcing Seton to roll through the pitlane and lose track positions in the process. By the time his second pit stop was completed, he raced from 25th to just outside the top ten at 12th.

Besnard lost one position at the start after being forced out wide in the race to the first chicane and set consistent lap times in the FPV FPR AU Falcon, making up three places before a high speed lose at turn four which broke one of the Falcon's sway bars on the 19th lap. The 26 year old continued to complete the race, finishing 24th.

Today's 300 kilometre race was won by SBR Falcon driver Marcos Ambrose ahead of Holden drivers Jason Bright and Steven Richards.

#6 Craig Lowndes - "We had a great strategy for this race, the crew did a great job to call the shots that got us right up with the top three. I made a slight mistake and this allowed Greg Murphy to catch me, we had an impact that pushed the right side guard against the tyre which made it difficult to turn right handers. The car was absolutely sensational up to that point. The guys did a great job all weekend to overcome the strong undesteer we experienced early on."

#5 Glenn Seton - "I was called into the pits under the second Safety Car but as I was rolling down pit lane the guys signalled me through - this made it three visits to the pits all up. That aside, the car was very taily early on so we made a change and this improved the car substantially. We have some work to do to as we are just not quick enough at the moment, but what a great debut for our new car with no mechanical problems all weekend. I congratulate the guys on a job well done, we finished in the top 12 with a car that was completed at 4:00am Thursday - what a great effort."

#19 David Besnard - "After the sway bar broke following the off circuit foray I ended up a long way back - it was a shame as the mistake cost us a good race strategy and it was a matter of bringing the car home a lot slower than I would have liked for whatever points I could gain."

FPR Chief Engineer John Russell- "This was a race that had its opportunities along with its problems for all three of our drivers. We elected to pit early with Glenn and Craig and in the urgency of the Safety Car periods we made an error which compromised Glenn's race. Glenn deserved to be further up the finishing order after his solid drive. Craig made strong progress during the first half of the race and our strategy was working until the incident with Murphy. This was one of those days of unfulfilled opportunity, but we have three straight cars from where we started on the grid so we look forward to Perth."

Craig Lowndes is now 8th in the Championship with 594 pts, Glenn Seton is placed 12th with 426 points and David Besnard is 31st with 198 points. Holden driver Jason Bright leads the Championship with 717 points.

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