Tyre Choice Crucial in Townsville: Winterbottom

Tyre tactics for this weekend’s Sucrogen Townsville 400 maynot be resolved until the field of 28 V8 Supercars are rolling to the grid,predicts Ford factory star Mark Winterbottom.

With one refuelling stop to do in each of the two 200km racesand the necessity to run both soft and hard Dunlop tyres – which do you start on? 

“That’s the million dollar question. It’s the unknown,” thePepsi Max Ford Falcon FG driver told v8supercars.com.au.

“There are two theories really, the soft tyre you leave tothe end because if a safety car comes out and you’re on hard tyres till the endyou are going to get swamped.

“But the flipside is you can go out and start on the softtyre and see how long it lasts. If it only lasts 30 laps then you rip it offand put the hard tyre on and go to the end. You have taken the lottery out ofhow long your tyres are going to last.” 

Previously in Townsville teams made two pit stops per race.But this year the cars will use the 115-litre enduro fuel tank rather than the75-litre sprint tank, reducing that to one stop for teams with good fueleconomy.

Ford Performance Racing certainly falls into that categoryand judging by Winterbottom’s break-though win in Darwin at the Skycity TripleCrown, soft tyre longevity and pace are also strengths.

“It’s all about soft tyre pace and longevity for sure,”Winterbottom confirmed. “Safety cars are also quite common in Townsville andthat bunches the field up. It is going to be interesting because a guy who blazesoff 10 seconds down the road may get a safety car and he’s used up his tyresand may end up fifth. You don’t know how to play it out. 

“But then that safety car doesn’t come out and you win by 10seconds. You just don’t know.” 

The conundrum will start to unlock in Friday’s practice atthe 2.86km Reid Park circuit, but with soft tyres not allowed on the cars untilSaturday’s Armor All Top Ten Shootout there will be plenty of debate prior tothe opening 70 lap race on Saturday afternoon. 

“After practice you will give the read on tyres and how theyfeel. You have got an idea of what you are going to do but often when youpractice you get a good idea of what the tyre wear is like, what thedegradation numbers are like and how you can save the tyre and still be fast.

“You have got to do all those things in practice, justtechnique and stuff like that and see how you go.

“Then you make a decision based on qualifying position andoften you can roll out and be making the decision a minute before the race.It’s never final until the car drives out of pitlane.”

Winterbottom will arrive in Townsville lying seventh in theChampionship – 344 points behind leader and arch-rival Jamie Whincup inthe Red Bull Racing Australia Holden Commodore VF – having suffered a varietyof setbacks this year including mechanical failures, pit stop dramas and crashes,including one with teammate David Reynolds in Darwin.

But boosted by his first 2013 win, the 32-year old remains upbeatabout fighting back in the Championship standings, especially given theunpredictability the new Car of the Future technical regulations haveintroduced. 

“There are a lot of unknowns and if it was a normal year 344points would be tough, but with a new car and new formats it is definitely a loteasier to get points back than it ever has been.

“You jut have to keep going, they (Red Bull RacingAustralia) are in the box seat but there is no pressure on us. We are nowhere,we can only do better, so it’s a good way to go.”