Drivers' Quoteboard: Race 22

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p1:

“It’s great to bounce back from Townsville where the Victorian teams stole our silverware.

“It’s never nice not to perform to your best but we worked hard and we obviously had a good car. We threw on some greens and we had a really good race. But we’ll still look at a few things overnight and hopefully keep it up tomorrow.”

Scott McLaughlin, Fujitsu Racing GRM, p2: 

“We made a change to help pounce on Jamie early in the stint and it didn’t quite work. Obviously I was quite fast early and then sort of dropped off at the end. But the car, it feels pretty good on tyres but I have to be honest with myself, I was pushing pretty hard to get the lead at the start, but I probably fried the tyres a bit too. I’m pretty confident it should be alright.

“I didn’t know if Lowndesy was beside me or not (at the restart) I couldn’t quite see and I was trying to look – obviously the HANS (head and neck support device) doesn’t allow that. I tried to get as good a start as I can… I did and the rest is history. I’m pretty happy with how we ended up after that. I was pretty happy, I was worried I was going to get turfed off a couple of times.”

Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max Crew FPR, p3:

“Three corners go right and two corners go left so you can often get hung out to dry quite quickly. I’m weak in one spot, I need to try and fix turn five. But other than that it was a pretty good day really. We tuned it we got it better, but as Jamie said until you put tyres on.

“I drove on tyres that I think the guys drove up on my practice tyres they were that bad, so tomorrow we will put greens on and it will be a new car and we will tune it now for tomorrow.

“I didn’t maximise the second set of tyres today, but one tenth covers 10 cars, so get it right you’re pole, get it wrong you’re 10th so we will see what do tomorrow, we will tweak it up, get the lap right and see how we go.

“It’s interesting when you talk to someone you always accuse someone of diving at their team. He (Lowndes) obviously blamed Fabian straight away so no surprise there to be honest.”

Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p4: 

“I had a good run on the inside of Fabian Coulthard into turn three and I pulled it up.

“My impression is that Coulthard overshot it and he had the contact with Frosty. There’s not a mark on my car. I didn’t feel anything. Overall for the day we’re a little disappointed, we didn’t quite have what we hoped in terms of set-up. We made a change at half-time and went a step forward but we didn’t quite fix the problem. But tomorrow’s a new day and we’ve got two races to get back there.”

James Courtney, Holden Racing Team, p5:

“We wanted to be a little further up, but we scored a good bag of points in fifth position.

“We’ll tune the car overnight; we know the area where we need to improve.

“We took a good step forward before Darwin and had a good result; Townsville was obviously fantastic. Now we just need to keep plugging away, developing the car and making it faster.

“We’ve got enough green tyres for qualifying and the race, so it’s not a drama.”

Will Davison, Pepsi Max FPR, p6:

“Today again proved what an up and down year we are having. We just consolidated as while we were quick this morning and quite aggressive it didn’t quite work in the different conditions of qualifying. We had two clean halves of the race today and did what we could. I know what set-up direction we need to go tomorrow and we scored solid points so it hasn’t been too bad a day.”

**Jason Bright, Team BOC, p7:**

"The car felt really good in that second half of the race. It still needs more but I had so much more confidence with the throttle. I was really making ground on the cars around me but I lost so much time at the start of the race.

"Alex Davison took a while to get past and then he bombed me when I was past him. I was lucky to hang onto him there.

"Then I lost a lot of time behind Shane (van Gisbergen). I couldn't quite get around his outside at the two left-handers even though I had really good pace on him. I got him a couple of times and some of my passes should have stuck but he pushed me all around the corner and I had to back out. I got him eventually but it cost us maybe three seconds, which was the gap to Reynolds' car at the end."

Alex Davison, JELD-WEN FPR, p9:

“Surprisingly the car isn’t too bad after that race but overall I am really happy with how I drove in the first part of the race especially. I got past a few guys early and then was stuck behind Dave (Reynolds), Shane (van Gisbergen) and Will (Davison). We had pretty good pace which was pleasing. In the second leg I was trying to get by (Jason) Bright and while held up Garth Tander lifted my car off the ground as he made a passing attempt. It was frustrating but we had reasonable pace and salvaged a top 10.”

James Moffat, Norton Hornets, p10:

“I’m definitely pleased with the result. It was a solid day for us. Anytime you sneak into the top 10 in this category, it’s pretty good.

“Considering what we’re dealing with the motor’s deficiencies, the result was about as good as we could ask for.

“The Altima is handling very well. I’m happy with the balance. It’s strong under brakes, but in qualifying and race conditions, we just give up too much on the straights which makes it difficult to set up passes.

“The car looked after its tyres really well. I was driving it as hard as I could and our lap times were pretty competitive.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s 100km races. I think that will suit our car even more in the later half of the races. We just need to concentrate on qualifying as far up the front as we can.”

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, p11:

"We needed to max a lap in qualifying this morning after not running any good tyres in practice, because we simply didn't have any. As soon as we got a good set on, the first lap was ok. Then the second lap, when I knew what I could get away with, was really good but it all went down-hill from there.

"First, I got caught up in other people's incidents, like Lowndes and Winterbottom into Turn Three. I had nowhere to go. There must have been contact between them and it arrowed Frosty into my path. I tried to avoid him but made contact. That was pretty much it for the day.

"I didn't have too much pace in the first half of the race. The break fixed the car up a little bit and then the same thing happened again. I made a few spots at the start and then got run out of road during the incident with Garth (Tander) and Alex (Davison). I had to take to the grass and there's no grip there."

Shane van Gisbergen, Team TEKNO V.I.P. Petfoods, p12:

“The first half was ok, we moved up a spot to seventh, and in the second half, I’m not really sure what happened, but we just had an overall lack of grip. I was fighting pretty hard just to keep in front of everyone, hoping the tyres were low and that it would come on, but it never did. It felt like I got passed by everyone, so I was surprised that we’re still 12th. That is a pretty good thing, considering how we went today.”

Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing, p13:

“It was a lot of fun out there, the first half it was all pretty subdued and everyone was just cruising around and we managed to get past a few after we lost a few at the start, so that was good.

"We made up three spots to start with in the second half and unfortunately I think everyone threw that attitude out the window in the break and people went crazy everywhere, which was good and it made good racing.

"I don't think there was anything crazy going on, so we managed to sneak up to the back of the top 10 and then as time went on, we just couldn't look after our tyres as good as is the first half of the race so we ended up back in 13th, but we've got some good data for tomorrow with a solid race car." 

Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing, p15:

"From a good qualifying run that just went pear shaped through the race. I'm trying to do the right thing out there all the time and the standard of driving is just average with some of these blokes.

"Again just being run off the track a few times and nerfed off and lost positions to end up where we did, so it's a shame, because something needs to be done about it; the cars are definitely good enough to be up there."

Tim Blanchard, Wilson Security Falcon, p16:

“Today was a good result for the #17 DJR team. We had good race pace early on and made some ground. The races were hectic but I managed to stay out of the carnage and keep my nose clean. We have got a quick car for sure, but we are struggling for tyre life over the distance. It was pleasing to get well up the field at the restart and hold that position.”  

Alex Premat, Fujitsu Racing GRM, p20:

“Well it has been long and quite hard day. Qualifying started quite alright but unfortunately I was missing out for tenths to be in the top 10 and that’s why I finished p15. But I had a good start in the first half of the race and then the car was massive oversteer in high speed and I was losing maybe four or five tenths going through turn one and turn two and costing time on the lap and that’s why I ended up sixteenth… The second half was quite alright I got a good start and James Moffat pushed me a bit wide turn two and a few positions. And then I had contact with Todd Kelly and David Wall. When he went sideways and at the end I was p25 and then I came back to like 20 and it’s a shame because I think definitely we could have finished p10 and the race finished like this and we need to work on it tomorrow.”

Tony D’Alberto, Team HIFLEX, p21:

“Tough qualifying, was very hectic out there. Got blocked and lost a lot of time but the car’s still not a weapon. We have had good 60/60 sessions in the past so (we were hoping to) make up some spots during the race.

“Was a tough race too, just seemed like not much went right for us today. We got caught behind a few cars and just couldn’t seem to find a way past. We still managed to climb fives positions throughout the second half, which has given us confidence for tomorrow two 100km races.”

Chaz Mostert, Wilson Security Falcon, p23:

“After the first leg the car wasn’t quite right, but we tweaked it at the break, then the car was quite good. We got into the Top 10 which I was really happy about. I then got shuffled back a bit and ended up in the pack with plenty of barging going on. The car looked after its tyres better in the second leg, but we got the short stick today with no real points to show for it. We should be in good shape if we can find a couple of tenths in qualifying tomorrow.”   

Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets, p25: 

“Unfortunately, we had a poor qualifying session, but we changed the set-up for the race and the car was good enough to move up eight spots in the first part of the race.

“We were happy with the speed, but at the start of the Part B race, I was taken out and there is a fair bit of damage for the boys to look at.

“We get another chance tomorrow in qualifying and the races to redeem ourselves.”

Jonathon Webb, Team TEKNO Darrell Lea, p26:

“Stint one was a bit average from my perspective, I just felt like I didn’t have any car speed, much as it’s been all weekend.

“Unfortunately when you’re that far back you get caught up in everyone else’s garbage, and you just end up bashing into each other and not going anywhere. In the second half I got pushed three wide at turn six on the first lap, and there was no road left. I tried to rotate it and get it back onto the race track, but it was going to get bogged, so I went around the outside. 

“By the time I got out of the gravel trap I was in pit lane and that was our day done.”

David Reynolds, The Bottle-O FPR, DNF:

“I think [race engineer] Nathaniel jinxed us as he jokingly told everyone at the start of the weekend we would blow a tyre and sure enough, we did. I was having set-up dramas in the first half but we made some good changes for the second part and the handling was much better. I just didn’t have enough to get past Will Davison and wasn’t close enough to make a clean move. Hopefully we qualify up front tomorrow and we can use our improved pace and any luck that gets thrown my way.”

Lee Holdsworth, IRWIN Racing, DNF (via Twitter): 

“When's this disaster run gonna end! Tomorrow's another day, time to turn this luck around.”

From the teams: 

Tim Edwards, FPR Team Principal: 

“There was a lot of feisty driving out there but thankfully we came through it all relatively unscathed. Mark kept his head and recovered well to finish on the podium, while Will and Dave seemed to be locked together for both parts of the race. Will’s start was excellent though we’ll need to work on improving the overall balance of his car to lift him further up tomorrow. Dave’s poor run of luck continued and Alex did very well to escape some pretty wild racing. We have some work to do but we’re pretty confident we can make the necessary gains overnight.”

David Stuart, Erebus Motorsport V8 Team Manager:

“We had a good practice yesterday, but of course with practice you don’t know what quality tyres everyone else is on. We knew our tyres were pretty good and we were encouraged by the speed we had yesterday.

“In practice this morning I think most teams had pretty good tyres for their final run and again we were encouraged with our performance.

“Qualifying wasn’t quite as good as we expected, but Tim did a good job to get into the top 10.  Maro and Lee finished down a bit further but we will work on that for tomorrow.

“The race is the race, we saw a high level of contact throughout the entire field and you can’t account for people running into you.

“Today was disappointing for the team as they have worked really hard over the course of the weekend, and have worked tirelessly over the course of the year to advance our program to this point.

“The up side is every time we come out we are making very obvious improvements and we are getting closer to the front each the time.

“Tomorrow’s another day and we will look at what we have to do tonight to get the cars back on track and improve our performance for tomorrow.”

Bruce Jenkins, TEKNO Team Manager:

“That was a tough day in the office. The first half wasn’t too bad, certainly for Shane. For Jonathon his pace was actually pretty good, which was pleasing. In the second half with Shane we’re going to need to analyse the data and uncover whether it was something to do with tyres, or chassis dynamics, we’re not sure. We’ll need to look into that one. For Jonathon, he got pushed at the last corner on the first lap and ended up coming through the pit lane. It was a bit of a strange one. It cost him an awful lot of time, and so the best thing for us then was to save the tyres and send him out to race to the end. It was a shame that he got knocked off, as it cost us a much better result.”