Symmons Plains: FPR weekend summary

FPR DID 'EVERYTHING RIGHT'

Ford Performance Racing was fastest in Tasmania today as Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards drove a gritty 84 laps for fourth and 15th respectively

Tyre strategy again provided thrilling V8 Supercar Championship racing with opposing tactics keeping everyone guessing.

Frosty opted for an early stop to find clear air. With no one holding him up, the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon was consistently lapping under 52 seconds on the soft tyres and had a commanding lead over Jamie Whincup when the 888 Ford finally pitted from P1.

A run-in with Greg Murphy on lap 53, however, cost Winterbottom around 20 seconds and he had to make do with fourth.

Before that, Murphy had been trading blows with Richo but the Castrol FPR Falcon muscled through on lap 26 to pit a few laps later. The titanic battle continued after the stops, however, with Richo and Murph coming together on lap 46 after Richo's brakes faded.

The FPR cars will be back on track for V8 Supercar Championship Series races nine and ten in Darwin from 19-21 June.

Tim Edwards
Team Principal

"As a team we did everything right today: we had the fastest car; we had the right strategy, we had good pit stops but we didn't have a clean race.

"The most disappointing thing is that a lapped car (Dumbrell) sat in front of Frosty for the last ten laps, clearly defending his team-mate, and didn't get a blue flag. If he was faster then use then that would be fine, but he wasn't making any effort to pass his team-mate. I clearly have a different view to the DSO about what's acceptable for cars that are a lap down".

Mark Winterbottom
Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon

"I was just unlucky to get caught up with Murph. I passed him and instead of just slotting in behind me he's tried to re-pass, hit me in the rear, straightened me up and pushed me into the wall; I think he just messed up.

"I thought I was racing for position; I didn't know I had that big-a-gap to Jamie. I was pushing because I didn't want to get stuck behind people.

"Early on I knew I was doing good times. The team gave me a target and I was consistently under that. I flat-spotted a tyre early on when I put the hard tyres on and I was pretty much just hanging on from there."

Steve Richards
Castrol FPR Falcon

"Once we got stuck behind Murph at the start I couldn't make any head way; the brakes got too hot and started to fade so I wasn't even trying to pass. I locked the wheels and was just a passenger after that.

"It's hard to compare against everyone else because you're running your own race; everyone's pitting at different times and battling their own problems. I know the pace of the car was good enough to be in the top three if we weren't getting held up though; we would have ended up very well actually."

-credit: fpr