Ford Performance Racing's long-time lead driver Mark Winterbottom's race results are a sorry tale this season, yet he reckons he's in with a big shot at the endurance in a new Falcon
Friday motorsport report
September 16, 2011
New car brings new hope for Blue Oval
On statistics it's the worst year of Mark Winterbottom's six with Ford Performance Racing, yet he is remarkably upbeat – even confident – as the endurance season begins at Victoria's Phillip Island this weekend.
Winterbottom hasn't finished lower than fifth in the V8 Supercar Championship the past five years. In 2008 he was runner-up and in '06 and last year he was third. This season he's seventh. In the past five seasons he won 15 V8 Supercar races. This season he's winless.
Indeed, Ford has won only twice in 18 championship races this year in the two-make series – and both times it was youngster Shane Van Gisbergen in a Stone Brothers Falcon.
So how can Winterbottom – universally known as "Frosty" and now 30 – be so optimistic? Well, he has a brand new Falcon, FPR-1111, for the enduros.
It's the last FPR plans to build before the arrival of the Car of the Future in 2013.
And what's different this time? After all, V8 Supercar followers have heard plenty of hype year after year of how FPR is getting its act together in a super-competitive environment dominated by Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone, initially with Fords and for almost two seasons now with Holdens.
Over lunch with motoring.com.au this week Winterbottom explained the basis of his optimism. There are four points to it.
The first is that the FPR cars are more competitive on Dunlop's hard tyres than the soft compound that has been used much more this season.
The second, and perhaps most important, is a revised, "completely different" set-up that Winterbottom reckons has cured a long-time handling problem. In testing FPR-1111 at the Winton circuit in northern Victoria recently he reckoned he had a new-found rear-end stability under braking into corners. More of that in a moment…
The other positives Winterbottom sees are that FPR's engine department has extracted an extra 10 horsepower from its motors - which could be decisive, particularly in the Bathurst 1000 in three weeks – and that he's reunited with former teammate Steven Richards.
Richards is a two-time Bathurst winner and, although no longer a full-time V8 Supercar driver, has remained active on the country's tracks this year, especially in the Porsche Carrera Cup – in which he'll also compete at Phillip Island this weekend.
Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife won at the Island and Bathurst last year for Triple Eight and Holden and look a "dream team" again this spring as Skaife, the most winning driver in Australian touring car history, comes to the end of the driving road as he concentrates on management and administration.
But Winterbottom reckons he's got the perfect partner in Richards. They were paired in the 2007, '08 and '09 enduros, started first, second and third at Bathurst in those years, finished fourth in '08 and, Winterbottom recalls, Richards drove brilliantly to put them in a winning position in '07 before it all famously went horribly wrong for "Frosty" at The Chase in the closing laps. In '09 a fire put them out of The Great Race.
Above all, though, it is the improved handling of the new car that Winterbottom seems convinced can turn around his and FPR's year.
"We had a really great test at Winton, and I know teams always say that, but this is a pretty different set-up that we've got," Frosty told motoring.com.au.
"We've had issues with braking on entry [to corners] with the rear end, so we've tried something completely different and, as a result, we can have the same amount of turn but with stable braking.
"That [instability] is what's been really hurting our tyres – the rear sliding as we're getting to the corner. We made the change primarily to improve the handling on the soft tyre, but we got a gain on the hard tyre – so that's a real bonus for us.
"We've been pretty competitive on the hard tyres this year – I've had four pole positions and a couple of podiums – and Phillip Island and Bathurst are hard-tyre races.
"I was second at Phillip Island last year and we've got better car speed this year. A few have written us off, but it's falling into place."
Winterbottom is a massive 574 points behind Triple Eight's dual champion and this year's series leader Jamie Whincup, and 476 behind second-placed Lowndes.
He's level with Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander, a two-time winner this year, and 19 points ahead of FPR teammate Will Davison.
While Winterbottom and Davison sit seventh and eighth in the championship, the Ford factory team run by Brit David Richards' Prodrive operation is third in team standings and 458 points ahead of direct rival, fifth-placed HRT. FPR is 159 points behind second-placed Stone Bros but trails Team Vodafone by a whopping 1069.
Titles are out of the question for Winterbottom this season, but he said: "We've got nothing to lose now, so it's win at all costs for us - win or bust."
Phillip Island has been home to the lead-up enduro to Bathurst since 2008 but, while it serves its purpose as a 500km trial with championship points, its place in the motorsport – and broader sporting – landscape has diminished, as has the attendance.
The field is just the regular 28 cars this weekend, with no wildcards after development series team Miles Racing scratched itself.
When wildcard entries were introduced in 2009 there were three and last year two, now none – and again at Bathurst the field will be 28 instead of the 44 or more in the halcyon days at Mt Panorama.
In any case, with 28 co-drivers this weekend – including five from the V8 Supercar development series – there will be plenty of track time.
Today [Friday] there are three 40-minute practice sessions, another two Saturday morning, then a qualifying session and qualifying race for each driver Saturday afternoon. One driver in each entry will have to make a pitstop in their sprint race for at least two tyres to be changed.
The combined results from the qualifying races will form the grid for Sunday's 113 laps of the 4.45km seaside circuit, starting at 1.35pm eastern Australian time.
Brothers Rick and Todd Kelly have dominated the Saturday sprints at the Island, one of them winning one of the races each year, but neither has been on the podium on the Sunday.
Championship leader Whincup is paired with development series driver Andrew Thompson this endurance season, while HRT also has drawn on the junior series for two-time Island enduro victor Tander's partner – 23-yearold Nick Percat.
Will Davison will share the other FPR Falcon, just one round old, with Luke Youlden, who partnered Winterbottom to second at the Island last year, while reigning series champion James Courtney has veteran Cameron McConville as his co-driver.
Since winning a race at the opening round of his title defence at Abu Dhabi in February it has been a horror year for Courtney, who languishes 21st in the points.
"I've made mistakes, there have been penalties in races and some issues with the car, plus I've been caught up in accidents by being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Courtney said.
"The championship has gone for me, but winning the endurance races would turn a bad year into a great year – so that's my short-term focus."
The only driver having his first Phillip Island start in the championship is Irishman Richard Lyons, an accomplished racer in Japan who is sharing Jonathon Webb's Falcon.
The forecast is for fine weather, but at Phillip Island rain can arrive in a hurry– and that could make Sunday a lottery as well as a hit-out for Bathurst.
V8 supercar Phillip Island/Bathurst line-ups
V8 Supercar Championship top 10 drivers after 18 of 28 races - 1. Jamie Whincup (TeamVodafone, Holden Commodore) 1895 points, 2. Craig Lowndes (TeamVodafone, Holden Commodore) 1797, 3. Shane Van Gisbergen, (SP Tools Racing, Ford Falcon) 1502, 4. Rick Kelly (Jack Daniel's Racing, Holden Commodore) 1418, 5. Steven Johnson (Jim Beam Racing, Ford Falcon) 1345, 6. Garth Tander (Toll HRT, Holden Commodore) 1321, 7. Mark Winterbottom (Orrcon Steel FPR, Ford Falcon) 1321, 8. Will Davison (Trading Post FPR, Ford Falcon) 1302, 9. Alex Davison (Irwin Racing, Ford Falcon) 1255, 10. Lee Holdsworth (Fujitsu Racing/GRM, Holden Commodore) 1140.
V8 Supercar teams championship - 1. Team Vodafone (Holden) 3717 points, 2. Stone Brothers Racing (Ford) 2807, 3. Ford Performance Racing 2648, 4. Jim Beam Racing (Ford) 2328, 5. Toll HRT 2190, 6. Jack Daniel's Racing (Holden) 2164, 7. Fujitsu Racing/GRM (Holden) 2161, 8. Brad Jones Racing (Holden) 1991, 9. Paul Morris Motorsports (Holden) 1727, 10. Kelly Racing (Holden) 1702.
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