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We need more pace!

01 Apr 2014
Frosty's Falcon "hit and miss".
3 mins by James Pavey
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Mark Winterbottom described his Ford Falcon as “hit and miss” after finishing ninth in the Tyrepower Tasmania 400’s 200km sprint on Sunday.

While he made the podium on Saturday, and sits fifth in the overall Championship standings after two events, 'Frosty' believes his Pepsi Max Crew needs to rectify the problem – and fast.

“We need to find some pace to get that little bit further up,” Winterbottom told v8supercars.com.au.

“The car is hit and miss a bit at the moment. It’s good when it’s good, it’s not when it’s not. We’re not in a window, so we need to figure it out pretty quick.”

The FG’s pace is the primary issue.

“We’re not quick enough," Winterbottom said simply. 

"So if we can get quicker, all the good luck will happen. If you’re not quick it looks like you’ve got bad luck.

“So we just need to be better and the results will come.”

Saturday ended well for Winterbottom, who nabbed third place, but at the post-race press conference he seemed amazed at the pace of some of his competitors.

“They’re pretty quick in a straight line, so it would’ve been quite hard to fend him off – but Craig (Lowndes) showed his true pace, I think they’re just fluffing around at the front sometimes and when he has to pass he pushes the NOS and off he goes!” Winterbottom said after Lowndes drove from 25th to fifth in Saturday’s second 100km race.

Those feelings hadn’t changed after another day’s running.

“There’s some quick cars and they’re quick in a straight line, a lot of them. They’re as quick as everyone without the tow, so there’s some fair speed out there.”

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It wasn’t a good feeling for the 2013 Bathurst winner, with Winton just days away. How will he and FPR fare at the 3km Victorian circuit?

“Who knows?” he replied.  

“The horsepower’s probably not as big an issue there but you still need a good car so we’ll go there – we know the track – we’ll just see how we go I guess.

“We just need to find our setup. If we find our setup and stick pretty close to it we should be ok.”

Sunday started on a bad note when Winterbottom collided with stablemate Jack Perkins during qualifying. From there he only managed 13th and felt the race was tough because it’s difficult to make up spots during the 52-second lap.

However there were no bad feelings between the two, Perkins apologising after the incident.

Winterbottom has managed a hectic race schedule this month, slotting in a trip to Brazil between the Melbourne Rolex Australian Grand Prix and Tyrepower Tasmania 400.

Having only raced Formula Ford and V8 Supercars, Winterbottom was keen to try another category and impressed on debut in the Brazilian Stock Car race. Paired with up-and-comer Sergio Jimenez in a Voxx Racing Peugeot 408 V8 for the one hour race at the legendary Interlagos circuit in Rio de Janeiro, the two crossed the line fourth but were elevated to the podium after another competitor’s post-race penalty.

“Brazil was really good. Really good. I had a great result. I loved the series, it was good to do well and I’ll get an invite back and hopefully go well next year.”

Winterbottom’s teammate Chaz Mostert placed 13th, 18th and 14th in the weekend’s three races, and sits 22nd in the Championship.

While he contested Symmons Plains for the first time in V8 Supercars, the 21-year old won’t be a rookie at Winton Raceway, having run there in the main game and placing third in the final race last year.

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