Winterbottom 'gutted' after power steering drama

Mark Winterbottom was left “gutted” after a power steering issue ruined his chances of a top 10.

Winterbottom motored into the top 10 midway through the NTI Townsville 500 opener.

However, the IRWIN Commodore was forced into the lane on lap 67 with power steering dramas.

Winterbottom was classified 25th and last, and dropped from 11th to 12th in the points.

It was the latest in a string of power steering dramas for Team 18, although Scott Pye impressed to fifth.

Pye ran a low profile in the race, but pieced together one of his best performances of the season to date.

There were positives for Winterbottom and the team, but the 2015 champion wanted more.

"We had a pretty good start from 13th, worked our way forward and went for the soft tyre in the middle stint and we were running in a good position,” Winterbottom said.

"We put hard tyres on for the last stint and unfortunately we’ve had a mechanical fail.

"We’ll fix it tonight, I think we were on for about a seventh place finish so it would have been a good result starting where we did.

"I’m gutted but at the same time there’s positives to come out of the day and we get to race again tomorrow and have another chance at a result."

Pye was pleased to bring home a strong result for the team after a string of poor luck.

Heading into Saturday, Pye had finished just three of the previous eight races.

“Today went really well,” he said.

"I struggled on the used tyre in the shootout but in the race we had great speed and moved through to fifth.

"A huge effort for everyone today, the pit stops were awesome again and to come away moving up five spots in the race.

“Finishing up fifth is a really solid day considering the challenges we have had in the last few races."

Cars will return to the track for Race 20 qualifying at 10:10am local time on Sunday.