Drivers' Quoteboard: Races 17 and 18

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p1:

"I won't go making any big statements but the future is looking bright and certainly better than it has in the last few months. Thankfully the guys and girls at the workshop have dug deep during the break, as clich as that might sound, but we've certainly made improvements to the car.

"I've always said to get closer to the front of the Championship you've got to be fast and be winning races and we had fantastic cars underneath us today so we were able to do that.

"I did feel a little guilty crashing Lowndesy's 40th party but it's my nan's 94th so I was racing for her today.

"The story for this weekend is tyres and the thought of putting them back on tomorrow is mind numbing. There were a few teams today that weren't racing hell for leather so they'll certainly have an advantage tomorrow as we try and negotiate the weekend's allotment of four sets of tyres."

Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p2:

"It's great to get a couple of podiums today and I always love coming to the Northern Territory but it's a consistently tough weekend. Today was pretty straight forward with the single set of tyres but the dual tyres tomorrow is going to be a headache for everyone.

"Although it's my birthday, it will be business as usual tonight and my head will be in sheets of data and working with the team on how to improve from today and get more pace out of the car. There's no doubt that the test day during the race break was valuable to us because we could dig deeper in to the multiple combinations that we don't have time to at a race weekend. We came up with a number of good ideas on how to tune the car and we're a lot more confident looking forward to the second half of the season."

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, p3:

"It's really hard to pass here, everyone has that struggle. The car wasn't bad (in Race 17), it didn't feel as long or as painful as I thought it was going to be on the set of tyres. It was just a little bit tougher than normal.

"(Race 18) wasn't bad at all. I was pretty lonely for most of the race. I didn't get off the line so well and had a good little battle with Garth there on the first lap. Then I just managed the tyres, I didn't try and use up my tyres too much chasing the guys in front. We have to go away now and see how we can improve the car for tomorrow. It's not going to be great (starting on old tyres), but most of the field will be like that so it's all about strategy now and who can do that the best tomorrow."

Scott McLaughlin, Valvoline Racing GRM, p5:

"Qualifying was awesome and the car has been pretty good in the races so far. I am quite pleased with two top five finishes and hopefully we can push forward for tomorrow...

"We pulled away from everyone behind us, it was just the front three that got away from us. I caught up with Tander in the second race for fourth position, but it is hard to pass. I had to be careful as I had Frosty right on me. But it has been a good day overall."

Mark Winterbottom, Ford Pepsi Max Crew, p6:

"I got a bad start in the second race and I am generally struggling with grip. I did the job to put it on row two and when you then give it away it is disappointing. I struggled off the line and the car wasn't great in the race so we just salvaged what we could. I should've finished at least fourth in the last race but we need to go quicker tomorrow. Soft tyres will be a different ball game so we expect a different result."

David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team, p9:

"In the first race the car wasn't really to my liking. I had to drive a lot differently to what I wanted which took a bit of getting used to. In race two I got a pretty good start and bombed it around the outside, held my ground and made a lot of room. People around me made a few errors and the car was better, though we would've liked more pace. We qualified out of sequence, which hurt us. Tomorrow with soft tyres and a longer race will be much better for us."

Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets, p10:

"It was a reasonable day. We moved up in both races from our qualifying position, so a positive in that regard.

"I did not make a mistake all day today, so I feel this is the absolute potential of our package at the moment.

"It will be interesting to see how it plays out tomorrow. There's some guys out there who have good tyres stashed away, and that could pay them some serious dividends. Guys like James (Moffat) should have a good shot tomorrow."

Jason Bright, Team BOC, p12:

"Getting stuck behind Holdsworth certainly dragged us down quite a bit and meant we were too far behind to catch the Tander and Winterbottom battle at the end there. The car had reasonable pace in the race though. It never feels great when you try and do 35 laps around this place on a single set of tyres but I felt like our tyre life was as good as anyone's out there."

Will Davison, Erebus Motorsport V8, p13:

"It was a tough day for the team today - you never like to see that with two mechanicals with both cars but it was a great job from my guys to get the car turned around in between the races with a lot of set-up changes and the repairs.

"Obviously it was a tough day but on a positive note in that second race, we were trialing some really extreme things today and I feel that although it still wasn't great, it was a much better direction than the first race even before the mechanical problem.

"I'm really confident we've found a direction so if we can get some more of that tomorrow I think we can have a much better day.

"Tomorrow is the main race so here's a lot to play for. Although it was a tough day today, we were very determined to make sure we ended the day at least with an idea of what we needed to do for tomorrow.

"I think there was certainly some positive things for tomorrow.''

Chaz Mostert, Ford Pepsi Max Crew, p14:

_"_Two 14thplaces still give us some points but the hard tyre didn't really work for us today. We should roll out better tomorrow but this track is long overdue for a resurface. It is not that great for the combination of factors we had today. Tomorrow is all about maintaining the whole race and it will be interesting to see if everyone finishes."

Scott Pye, Wilson Security Racing, p15:

"It looked like all the Fords struggled in Qualifying except for Frosty. I think only seven-hundreths covered all the other Falcons! It sure makes the races tougher as we saw today. Everyone followed each other and those who tried to go for a pass often out braked themselves. I think I know every sticker on the back of Chaz's car off by heart as I followed him for about 70 laps all told. Once again we had a good race car but I just could not put it to good use. Two 15th positions on the day is not a bad result."

David Wall, Wilson Security Racing, p16:

"We made improvements overnight and chipped away at it but we are still need a fair old chunk of time to be where we need to be in the Wilson Security/PAYCE Falcon. We will have a good look at the data tonight and look forward to some soft tyres tomorrow.

"The qualifying was better in the second 10 minute session and the same in the two races. We improved the tyre life between races and it was a lot better in Race 2, but we still need to make a jump for tomorrow's race."

Dale Wood, Team ADVAM/GB Gal, p17:

"It's like any race in this category, if you don't qualify well you get caught up in a lot of issues and you can end up with a fair bit of damage. It's all about qualifying in this field.

"I've made good starts all year but unfortunately I just didn't get a good one then. I've been struggling to feel the tyre on the road here, there's so little grip. The tyres went off pretty quickly and I just didn't feel consistent enough in the car. We've got a bit of work to do tomorrow but hopefully we can get it up the grid in qualifying like today and give us the best chance of a good result."

Robert Dahlgren, Valvoline Racing GRM, p18:

"It was not the qualifying I had looked for. I had quite a battle for lower positions in both races. The car was a bit bashed up, but it will be fine and ready to go for the third race. I am looking forward to qualify on the soft tyre tomorrow."

Nick Percat, Walkinshaw Racing, p19:

"It sure was a tough day for us, but we will regroup overnight and come out firing for tomorrow's qualifying and longer race."

Jack Perkins, Team JELD-WEN, p20:

"In the first race the car wasn't really to my liking. I had to drive a lot differently to what I wanted, which took a bit of getting used to. In race two I got a pretty good start and bombed it around the outside, held my ground and made a lot of room. People around me made a few errors and the car was better, though we would've liked more pace. We qualified out of sequence, which hurt us. Tomorrow with soft tyres and a longer race will be much better for us."

Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, p22:

"I'm actually not too dissatisfied with the car itself.

"I feel we didn't get the most out of it in qualifying, and it put us back a bit.So we took that opportunity to put all of our eggs in the Sunday basket so to speak.

"Considering we ran those tyres for well over 200km, when you take into account the qualifying laps, I thought it wasn't too bad.

"I'm keen to see how we fare tomorrow; we've obviously got a tyre advantage now over most of the field, so we should be able to move forward with that.We also seem to be a bit stronger on the soft tyres than we are on the hards, so that should help us as well.

"It's good for us, but we'll see what tomorrow has in store."

Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, p23:

"On paper it sets up for a good Sunday.But we need to fulfil our end of the bargain tomorrow; hopefully we do nail that because it will provide a good little advantage at the start.

"Hopefully we'll be able to make up some ground, and slightly change our strategy on the soft tyres.

"The potential is there to have a better result tomorrow than what we've had so far.

"You never know what can happen, so hopefully we can pull it off."

Lee Holdsworth, Erebus Motorsport V8, DNF:

"I was happy to get a top 10 in qualifying for the first race and the top 10 in the first race was great, banking up some points.

"I guess we still have a lot to work on with the car. We had good pace at the start and finish of the first race but we really need to get that pace in the middle part of the stint as well if we are going to go well tomorrow.

"We tried a few things to get on top of it for the second race and it was hard to get a read amongst the pack and obviously I had a power steering issue so we finished the race early.

"But I guess the positive is we've got pretty good tyres to start the race tomorrow so we'll see how we go. We'll put all our effort into getting a good result for the big points.''

James Moffat, Norton Hornets, DNF:

"It's disappointing to end the day on a DNF, but it was just one of those 'Turn 1, Lap 1' things.

"Whether Scott (Pye) came across on me, I'm not sure, but I had left front to right rear contact, and unfortunately there was too much damage to the suspension and we couldn't continue.

"It's not good to have a DNF, but if we try and take a positive, it might play into our hands tomorrow with a better set of hard tyres to run on.

"Eleventhin the first race was as good as we could do. We were struggling with not enough front grip, and we'd made some changes but obviously didn't get a chance to see how they were.

"We just need to make sure we qualify well for the longer race and put our best foot forward."