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Drivers' Quoteboard: Race 10

04 May 2013
Hear what the drivers had to say about today's 60/60 race at Barbagallo Raceway -the first of three as part of Chill Perth 360.
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Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p1:

“It’s remarkable. It’s such a great feeling. It almost feels like my first victory (his 91st record breaking achievement) because everyone has been expecting me to reach it for so long. Of course, when you finally get that victory you can relax and it’s nice to finally have done it and have Skaifey (Mark Skaife) congratulate me there on the grid.

“We’ve gone back to basics with the car and changed the rear springs and we’ve found something. I’m very happy. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p2:

“Today is all about Lowndesy and what a way to do it with Triple Eight’s 100th race win and Red Bull Racing Australia’s first one-two. I couldn’t be happier for him.

“We had probably the fourth or fifth quickest car out there so I’m happy with second.

“We still haven’t found what we’re looking for from the car but we’re trying our guts out and we’re getting results.”

Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max FPR, p3:“The tyre management situation is really tough and over the two 25 lap stints today I think most of us were unsure when to start to push. That makes it hard to pass as everyone is being a bit cautious but when I got into third I quickly caught Jamie (Whincup) and still had pace at the end so we obviously weren’t too bad. The problem was I made a meal of the last corner in Qualifying so I can’t blame anyone but myself as we should’ve been on the front row and that would’ve prevented the need to pass so many cars.”

**Jason Bright, Team BOC, p4:**"I was very happy with Qualifying (second). It ended up quite a difficult session because of a red flag with two minutes to go. We moved from eighth to second in that last lap, which could have really punished us if we didn't get that lap in. That meant we got the front row start and that's where you need to be here. You use up so much tyre passing people that you need to be in that first row or two at worst.

"Race-wise I was sitting second and looking after my tyres early on. Lowndesy got me and I wasn't too concerned at that point because I thought our pace was OK. Towards the end of the race it went away quite suddenly though and Frosty got us right on the last lap. I didn't think we used the tyres very hard but they went away sooner than I expected.

"On the second leg I was in third after a good little dice with Frosty at Turn One. After bumping mirrors I was able to hang in around the outside. I was really happy with the pace and thought we'd made an improvement in the car so I pushed and tried to get Jamie, knowing it could hurt us later on. I was hoping, if I could get clear track, I could run my own race but I couldn't get him so we used up a lot of tyre for no gain and Frosty got us in the last laps again.

"We've got a little bit of work to do but I think, in clear air, our race car would have been a lot better that time than in the first leg."

Alex Davison, JELD-WEN FPR, p5:“The last two days have been our best for the year as where we’ve been going wrong at other events is not making the most of the practice sessions which has left us playing catch-up. We came out of Practice here in Perth with a much better idea of the car and that led to a better qualifying result and then a better race result. It is a product of working better with Campbell (Little) and the crew and we are now seeing the benefit of that. I have a better idea of what we need to do for tomorrow’s race so if we can do that we should be in the top five again.”

Alex Premat, Fulitsu Racing GMR, p6:

“It has been a good day, qualifying seventh and finishing the race in sixth. A very good result for the team. We showed that our cars are performing at all the race tracks. We need to continue to push to make the top five. It has been a really good start to the season for Scott and I, we are consistently in top 10.

“The crew have done so much great work since December last year, it is really good to give them a good result. I am very happy and looking forward to tomorrow and to qualify and race in the top 10 again, we have the speed and we should be there.”

David Reynolds, The Bottle-O FPR, p7:

“It wasn’t too bad of a day considering yesterday I had issues with the brakes which dropped us behind where we should’ve been. Qualifying was a bit of a disappointment but the race was a very different story as we could push forward but we probably ended where we should’ve started. The crew obviously did a good job so tonight we’ll work out how we can improve the qualifying effort to make the racing better.”

 James Courtney, Holden Racing Team, p8:

“I needed an emotional rescue after Qualifying this morning!

“The result was pretty disappointing. We had a much faster car than the time sheets showed and I would have liked to start the race closer to the sharp end.

“Our race pace was pretty good and we pushed hard to work our way up through the order and into the Top 10.

“We’ll shine it up overnight and have another crack at a podium tomorrow.”

James Moffat, Norton 360 Racing, p10:

"From where we were yesterday scratching our heads, we've made great strides and I'm proud of the guys at Norton 360 Racing.

"We identified some issues with a batch of tyres that might have affected our speed yesterday.

"Qualifying 13th was important for us, because I felt that our race package was always going to be stronger. To be 13th made our life easier.

"The car was really good in the first part of the race, but I struggled a bit with the rear tyres in the second half, but this is a strong result for our side of the garage and Nissan."

Michael Caruso, Norton 360 Racing, p11:

"It is definitely better than where started (25)!

"It was unfortunate in Qualifying that I started from the back because of the red flag. We'd elected to wait until the end of the session to set our time but got caught out with red flag.

"It is always hard work at these types of tracks, trying to pass everybody, but to come 11th from back there is a good effort from everyone at Norton 360 Racing.

"The Nissan Altima is handling really well, so I can't wait to get into the 100km races tomorrow."

Scott McLaughlin, Fujitsu Racing GRM, p12:

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“Today was pretty good, in Practice the car was good, we put on new tyres and it was a lot better then yesterday, good job by all the boys to improve the car overnight. Qualifying went well, unfortunately on our second set of tyres the red flag came out, we should have been in the top 10, but ended up 12th. Didn’t show our true pace.

“Didn’t get bad start to the race, we followed Shane Van Gisbergen through and had a good battle and passed a few cars and ended up ninth for the first half. In the second half Shane and I were at it again, I made a move on Shane, we ended up touching and I lost four positions. The car was bent but we brought the car home in 12th. 

“Alex (Premat) was sixth, a great job by him and for the team very promising.”

Tim Slade, Heavy Haulage Australia Racing, p13:

“The car is working really quite well this weekend. The change that we have made to the engine means it’s a lot more drivable. The throttle response is a lot better, it doesn’t chug on the exit of the corners and the deceleration of the motor is a lot better as well. 

“As far as my day went, Practice was really positive and we tried something a little different to my teammates. Qualifying was a little bit disappointing but the car worked really well in the race and we moved forward in the first half from 20th to 12th.

“At the start of the second half I got shuffled down a bit due to my position on the outside at the rolling restart, but our pace was pretty good.  We did have better pace than some of the guys in front towards the end and I think the races tomorrow will suit us better as they are longer races.”

Will Davison, Pepsi Max FPR, p14:

“It was unfortunate the tyre deflated today but I took full advantage of the new format which allowed me to get back on the lead lap after the halftime break. I re-used a tyre due to the puncture which hampered us a bit for the second part of the race, though we will not be compromised tomorrow which is the most important thing. I still came from last to 14th so that shows how good our tyre life is and bodes well for tomorrow. We need to qualify better but I am happy with the car pace so we’ll be fine.”

Chaz Mostert, Wilson Security Racing, p15:

“I ended the day in 15th so am pretty happy with that. I am looking forward to tomorrow with two Qualifying sessions and the races. I had a really hard race with Shane (Van Gisbergen) in the first race and I think when we touched it knocked a bit of the steering out. The last five laps I was hanging on for the finish. It is a learning curve for me. I really like the format as you finish one day then it is a whole new game in the next one. We did not have that in the Dunlop Series.”

Lee Holdsworth, IRWIN Racing, p18:

“As I expected after the test day the car is much easier to drive. This means we have been able to focus a little more on car set up.

“Obviously we didn’t get it quite right today as the car didn’t hang on to its tyres and the balance wasn’t very good. Tim had a good set-up in his car today so we’ll have look at the information from his car and see if we can improve for tomorrow.

“Given the nature of the track and what we saw today with tyre degradation, tyre life and pits stops will be important factors to consider for tomorrow’s longer races.”

Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, p19:

“I copped a few big hits in the first segment of today’s race and that upset the car performance during the second stint.

“While the result was not ideal, we feel as though we have a good read on where the car is at and looking forward to improving tomorrow."

Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, p20:

 "We blew a tyre in the first part of that race, which put me a lap down. Lucky the new rules got me back on that lap, but I couldn't really do much with it.

"Once the race gets underway, it's pretty hard to pass with how the car is, but the positive is the other two cars are quite good and set-up differently.

"We'll have a good think about it, but overnight we'll probably end up going in the direction of Moff (James Moffat) and (Michael) Caruso and we can have another good crack at it tomorrow."

Tim Blanchard, Wilson Security Racing, p21:

“We really had two different race cars in each leg today. We did not get the set up right in the first race and the car was a real handful from lap one. It made it tough a race, so we decided to make significant changes between races. The car was really good in race two, and we were able to pass a few cars and battle on for the whole distance. Qualifying of course was the difference and had we been further up I reckon we could have made more ground. We have a good direction now for tomorrow.”

Maro Engel, SP Tools Racing, p25:

“I’m really pleased with the way Qualifying went today and it was a really great result for the boys who have worked so hard getting these upgrades done. I think that our first top 10 in Qualifying proved the upgrades have worked.

“Unfortunately we had a few issues yesterday and this morning with a sticking throttle which meant we couldn’t run very long in Practice. We were limited to one lap runs as we had to keep checking the throttle.

“So in the today’s race we suffered to with rear tyre degradation. But overall I think the team has done a fantastic job and we look forward to tomorrow and hopefully reproducing a good Qualifying – the aim will be top 15.”

Rick Kelly,  Jack Daniel's Racing, p26:

"It was a very frustrating race for us, we didn't quite have the package in the first bit and we made a change in the break and made a really good improvement with the car, so we were going a lot better and we moved up to 18th.

"We knew that if you went off on the exit of Turn Five there was a great risk of hurting the tyre and unfortunately I put the car there and straight away the tyre went down, so she was very unforgiving.

"You'd expect that a place like that where cars fire off all the time that you wouldn't cop that, but it happened to a few of us and it's a good incentive not to go there.

"The great thing is the two Norton guys did a fantastic job and that's a really good direction for us for tomorrow. It proves that we can be hovering around the 10."

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