Frosty: "there's a long way to go"

Mark Winterbottom says he and Steve Owen can still fight back into contention for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 despite a series of setbacks in their Pepsi-Max Ford Falcon FG X in the opening stints of the race.

Owen dropped back as far as 20th in the early laps and then Mark Winterbottom drove without any instruments when the dash went blank in his first stint.

The car also received a mechanical black flag because the brake lights were stuck on.

But Prodrive Racing Australia elected to delay bringing the car into pitlane to fix the problem so it would stay in its refuelling window.

As a result #5 was hit with a 15 second pitlane penalty that is yet to be served.

"We will have to serve a 15 second penalty for that, but we are in our windows and stuff," Winterbottom told v8supercars.com.au. "We will need to be quick to get back up there.

"Steve is now in good pace and he has found a good rhythm, so we will see what happens at the end of the race. There is a long way to go."

Winterbottom said he had no dash - which mounts on the steering wheel - for the entire stint.

"You don't have shift lights, you don't have lock lines, but 12 years of being here you sort of know where to shift," he said.

"We still moved forward, I passed a couple of cars and stuff.

"It's not ideal, but we fixed it, which is good, and we will hopefully keep trucking along."