Drivers' Quoteboard: Race 13

Mark Winterbottom, Ford Pepsi Max Crew, p1: 

“Today was an amazing day and to win the Jason Richards trophy is very special. He was an amazing guy and we all take great pride in winning this. We currently hold Jason’s trophy, the Mark Porter Trophy and the Peter Brock Trophy so we are very honoured to have won such special races in our championship. It was incredible to race on ANZAC Day, to see the massive crowd supporting us all weekend and to claim two wins and the points lead is all we could’ve asked for. We are all very proud of what we’ve achieved and will use this momentum to drive us all to perform at the highest level.” 

Scott McLaughlin, Valvoline Racing GRM, p2: 

“You come here and always wanting a win but at the end of the day it’s been an awesome weekend to get a couple of poles and ... a couple of podiums is great too. But yeah, a little bit disappointed we didn’t come away with a win. Obviously you come here to win but at the end of the day it’s been a pretty good points haul and we needed this in some ways just to sort of get us a little bit of a buffer in the Championship, in regards to the seventh to 10th bracket. Pretty happy.”

Chaz Mostert, Ford Pepsi Max Crew, p3: 

“It is fantastic to be on the podium with a guy like Frosty and Scott McLaughlin who I’ve been battling with in the junior ranks for many years. I started the event a little off the pace but we’ve adapted my Pepsi Max Ford all weekend and while we weren’t quite on Mark’s pace, we definitely were good enough for the podium battle. I am not looking at our points but we’ve had a great weekend and I am relieved to have some results which show the potential of what we can do. I’ve doubled my podium tally this weekend so it’s been great.” 

Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets, p5: 

“It’s a credit to the Nissan Motorsport crew for this result.

“We had some mechanical problems on Friday and Saturday, we fixed those up, qualified in seventh today and moved up a couple of spots at the end.

“Today’s race was worth a lot more points, so we really needed this result to bounce back after a couple of tough rounds.

“Again, the boys here did a fantastic job today. They solved the problems we had early and I’m really proud of them.

“Barbagallo Raceway is next on the calendar, and that’s a circuit where you really know if you have a good car or not. I think we’ll come away from there with a good understanding of our true speed relative to others.

“We’ve also got a test coming up after Barbagallo, so that will be perfect timing. We’ve got some ideas on what we want to do, but we’re just holding them until that test.”

Jason Bright, Team BOC, p6: 

"To be honest with the pace we had today we don't deserve to hold the JR Trophy. It was pretty disappointing. We qualified poorly again and we had a lot of work to do in the race. We had good pace on the first set of tyres and we had reasonable pace to get up where we did but it was a tough day. We really struggled with the car at the end there. Just wasn't an easy weekend. Unfortunately as the weekends go on they just seem to get harder qualifying wise. It's been tough. We're very good on a green track, very good when it rains but when the track gets more grip it's much harder for us.

"The trophy couldn't go to a better guy than Frosty. We were great as teammates and of all the guys up there I'd rather see him take it than anyone else." 

Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing, p8: 

"It's good that we managed a better result today because it was for triple points compared to the other races.

"It was a pretty strong car today, we didn't quite get the strategy as good as hoped, but we ran up the front and had really strong race pace.

"For us it's a step further forward, I just need to do an even better job in qualifying and put us a little further forward.

"Really, that's the only thing that held us back from getting to spray champagne, and that for us is really exciting.

"It's a step forward, and we definitely had the potential there to be up as high as probably third with that race package.

"We can be happy with that, that does really prove that Nissan Motorsport has made a good leap forward in the last couple of rounds, and we have been able to capitalise on it, particularly with Michael (Caruso's) fifth position.

"We can take a lot away from that, and we've just got to put our head down and not make any errors, and just put a clean weekend together."

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, p9: 

"We had pace for ninth or tenth all weekend so we need to go back and look at some data to establish why. Qualifying on the hard tyres has never been a strength this year so we need to look at what it is about the hard tyre but at the moment we're struggling a little bit. The racing was today was alright but when you start that far back you shouldn't be racing those people anyway. We moved forward, that was the main thing this weekend. We're still sitting third in the Championship, there's a long way to go but for what I feel like wasn't such a good weekend it's still good to be sitting third in the points."

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p10: 

“The first factor that contributed to our result today was qualifying poorly which left us in the pack and then we stayed in the pack. When we’re in that position we don’t like just running mid-pack so we rolled the dice slightly with the strategy thinking there was going to be a safety car and then hoping to gain a few spots but the gamble didn’t pay off. I’m not sure anything paid off this weekend between mechanical failures and red flags going against us but that’s not an excuse – we didn’t put ourselves in the right position and we just weren’t quick enough. If you’re quick enough you can make up for other errors but we just weren’t there this weekend so that’s the main area we’ll be talking about next week.” 

Nick Percat, Heavy Haulage Australia Racing, p11: 

“I had another strong run today but didn’t quite have the pace we enjoyed in the earlier races over the weekend. We were on target for another top ten finish until both Jamie and I locked our brakes and ran off the track. There weren’t enough laps to get those spots back, but overall I am pleased with the weekend.”

Scott Pye, Wilson Security Racing, p13: 

“Qualifying is something we still really need to work on. Our one lap pace is just not that good but our race pace is phenomenal. Towards the end we had one of the fastest cars on the track. I could use the pace the car had in the race to move right up on other cars and make the pass. It is great having both the speed and confidence with the car to really go in deep to make up those positions. To move up from P20 to P13 is again a solid result. We have a straight and fast car so there are plenty of good things to work with as we head to Perth.”

James Moffat, Norton Hornets, p16: 

“That’s the sort of result you get when you don’t qualify well.

“We didn’t chase the setup hard enough in qualifying and we paid the price. All of the other Nissans qualified inside the top 10, and that was very disappointing.

“Our pace in the race was good. We trucked along and picked up a couple of spots, but the result just wasn’t good enough.

“We’ll pick up the pieces and try our best at Barbagallo.” 

David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing, p17: 

“You’ve got to be kidding me! What a joke to get a puncture when we were having such a great run. We were pitting that lap anyway, and I had pace for a podium, but that’s just racing, isn’t it? Another character building one. I’m building so much character though that everyone thinks I’m funny! I guess we will just try again at the next one.”

Jack Perkins, Team JELD-WEN, p18: 

“It was a long old race, no safety cars. Started 18th and finished 18th. I think our pace probably wasn’t truly reflected in our result, the car was much better today. Congratulations to FPR, another 1-3 finish. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the Team JELD-WEN Ford on the podium at the next round.”

Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p20:

“The biggest issue we’ll have to look at after today’s race was the locked up tyre we had in qualifying and having that carry through to the race which hurt us. I have to say our car balance today was fairly good and we were consistent. We obviously did a huge amount of laps on that last set of tyres and we were still pretty competitive at the end in comparison to yesterday and the day before which we have to look at as positives. We’re of course not happy where we ended up, it’s one of the worst weekends we’ve had in a long time. We can only look forward to the Perth 400 now.” 

Tim Slade, Supercheap Auto Racing Australia, p21: 

“Qualifying was obviously good, with the front row slot.

“However, at the start, the clutch went to the floor – so I made sure the starters were aware I wasn’t going to get going. They aborted the start, and had to begin my race from the pit-lane. 

“I also had to left-foot brake the whole race, which wasn’t ideal. Regardless, the car had good speed, which is encouraging for future rounds.

“I just feel sorry for all the boys. It would have been nice to get a top result today after yesterday’s results and after qualifying being so good. We’ll put it behind us and look forward to the next one.”

Dale Wood, Team ADVAM/GB Gal, p22:

“We really struggled for pace. Not really sure why, maybe a little bit of me not getting to grip with the track this weekend and then I was just never happy with the car. The car never felt the same for me lap to lap. We struggled with setup all weekend and kept killing the rear tyres. It’s really disappointing after the podium at Winton but there’s plenty to think about and plenty to learn.”

Robert Dahlgren, Valvoline Racing GRM, p23: 

“Qualifying Sunday, went good in the beginning but I was on scrap tyres. Put new ones on and unfortunately it didn’t, we weren’t right on the money for getting up there. We were about five, five and a half tenths off fastest and that covered the whole field so it was really close. 

“I think I could’ve been a lot further up, I should’ve made some changes to the car, got a better lap in and we would have been there. And we had made some changes for the race, which we’d thought about for qualifying, but made it for the race. 

“When I had a really good race car, unfortunately I spun … When I hit the kerb at the same time I went on the throttle and it spun me around and then the car stalled and I needed to restart. I had basically the whole race on my own but I had good pace. I could match top five in the race, I felt like I made big steps forward this weekend and now I’m just looking forward to Perth.”