2010 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES – RACE 17
L&H 500, PHILLIP ISLAND, VICTORIA.
Date: September 10-12, 2010
Circuit: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Victoria.
Length: 4.45-kilometres
Race Format: 2 x 60-kilometre Qualifying races on Saturday, 1 x 500-kilometre race on Sunday
Ford Performance Racing (FPR) kicked off their endurance campaign today with three 40-minute practice sessions at the iconic Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit in Victoria.
In inclement conditions, all four FPR drivers experienced all variables on the weather front, with the switch from wet to dry tyres and back again keeping the pit crew busy throughout the day’s three sessions.
The Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon combo of Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden were the quickest of FPR’s pairings, posting the eighth quickest time of the day with a 1min 33.63sec lap, with the Dunlop Super Dealer FPR Falcon of Steve Richards and James Moffat finishing the day in 14th place with a laptime of 1min 34.28secs.
“Quite an interesting day out there today,” young Moffat quipped.
“It was actually a good thing having the weather change the way it did because I got to sample the car in all sorts of conditions that we could face on Sunday,” he added.
“The car felt pretty good, obviously there are a few things we still have to work through but it’s the first day of practice so we weren’t heading out there to try and break the lap record.
On Sunday we face 500k’s around here so we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves … there’s a long way to go,” Moffat said.
Also strapping in for his first endurance duties of 2010 was Melbournian Luke Youlden.
Youlden, who has supported FPR before during enduro events, backed Moffat’s thoughts on the day.
“Today gave us a feel for what could happen with regards to conditions for the rest of the weekend,” he said.
“I think I had a shot on wets in the wet, wets in the dry, slick tyres in the wet and slicks when it was dry … (referring to tyres) It was a typical taste of this place throwing up a full season in one day!” he laughed.
“As a co-driver you always want more time in the car and hopefully tomorrow if we can avoid the red flag stoppages we had today, and the weather holds out I’ll be able to get some decent time in on some green rubber,” Youlden added.
Orrcon Steel FPR pilot Mark Winterbottom, who currently sits third in the championship, will be looking to continue where he left off at the last race in Townsville, which was on the ‘number one’ step of the podium.
“Today was a tricky practice session,” Frosty said.
“It was obviously still beneficial but it was hard to keep the momentum flowing with all the rain and red flag interruptions,” he said.
“Today we focused on our race set-up which included doing as many laps as we could on heavy fuel loads and old tyres so tomorrow you’ll definite see an improvement in our pace.
Overall we’ve got a pretty good package but there are a few little things we’ll sort out overnight to find the few tenths we need,” Frosty said not giving too much away.
Fellow Ford compatriot Shane Van Gisbergen was today’s quickest racer, setting the quickest time of 1min 32.79secs around the 4.45km circuit.
Qualifying for the L&H 500 starts tomorrow 11.30am local time.