FROSTY ICY AFTER CONTENTIOUS CALL FPR – GOLD COAST 600 RACE 1 WRAP Ford Performance Racing has lost a podium finish just minutes after a gripping opening race on the Gold Coast where Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert put on a show to come from low grid spots to the front of the field. Winterbottom qualified outside the top 10 and despite neither he nor co-driver Steve Owen being happy with the handling of their factory Ford, they ran a smart strategy and stayed out of trouble to emerge as a podium contender in the closing stages. Winterbottom was closing on the much slower Tim Slade in third and at the final corner of the final lap the pair made contact as Slade braked mid-corner, aiming to slower the title contender. The pair made light contact and Winterbottom used his straight-line speed to pass his opponent on the line. Only after returning to the podium area and celebrating with his team and when heading towards the presentation area were Winterbottom and Owen informed they had lost their position and been demoted to fourth. Despite no customary post-race investigation the penalty was given costing the team vital points in its title quest. Bathurst champion Chaz Mostert drove from a lap down to finish sixth after another mature drive saw him avoid the carnage around him and use his strategy to his advantage. Incidents ruled out the David Reynolds/Dean Canto and Jack Perkins/Cameron Waters entries with Perkins not even turning a lap when a holed radiator sidelined Waters before one-third distance. Canto started the #55 entry and was in the early podium running only for Reynolds to make heavy contact with the wall after damaging his front splitter on the torturous back chicane. A section of the splitter caught under his front wheels and he was unable to turn and the following left corner and hit the wall hard resulting in significant front-end damage. The crew is working to repair his chassis for Sunday’s repeat 102-lap race. DRIVERS’ VIEW Mark Winterbottom & Steve Owen - #5 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: 4th Winterbottom: “You are allowed to block really hard on the last couple of laps and (Slade) was doing that. But he tried to back me up at the last corner and we are both trying to race to the finish. It always favours the guy in front and it seems it did again today. We had a good race otherwise and despite a few little errors it was good to fight our way back through and have good pace throughout the stint. I feel a little bit robbed that we didn’t get on the podium, it’s a case of he said, she said and we ended up fourth. I am surprised they addressed the situation so quickly. The situation favours the guy in front and now we’ve set a precedent that you can drive to a line and force the guy behind to hit you knowing they’ll lose the position anyway. It is going to make it hard to have last lap thrillers. I have never seen something like that happen where your car is in the podium area and they take the result off you.” Chaz Mostert & Paul Morris - #6 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: 6th Mostert: “The race didn’t feel that long but it is fantastic to get sixth. I don’t know how we did it. The safety car and the positioning of other cars helped but to pass Whincup and get back on the lead lap was fantastic as it allowed us to have the finish we did when the next safety car came out. We were aiming for the top 10 and to get sixth and be in sight of third was good. We lost tyre life late and had to be conservative on the kerbs so I eased it off to look after the car. I gave it a nice big scrape at the Turn 2 exit wall which means there is a bit of work tonight but that’s racing here. These points are also good for our title battle. We are also just in touch for the Enduro Cup but we need a big one tomorrow.”
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 21:04:39 +0000
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