- 5/12/2025
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00:00:00Now love is all I got, I can't live. Love is all I got, only love in my life.
00:00:05Live right around the country, you're watching the V8 Supercars on 7 Sport as we get ready for races 18 and 19.
00:00:11Want to tell you about the official V8 Supercars online store. There's the address, shop.v8supercars.com.au.
00:00:19You can get all your official merchandise online shipped worldwide.
00:00:22And the 2013 product range is available online now and also selected teams merchandise is also available.
00:00:30They're gridding up for race 18, but what issues do they have to solve?
00:00:34Well, everybody's got problems, some more than others.
00:00:37More on that thanks to Penrite's proper racing line. Let's check in with Larco.
00:00:46Sorry mate, I lost you there, I'm back.
00:00:48We've talked a lot about the pit stop woes that Ford Performance Racing have had.
00:00:52And I don't want to focus in too hard on them, but let's have a look at some vision from the last couple of races.
00:00:57There was clips on them we saw, Austin. Very recently, here they are.
00:01:00And you can see, most of the drama has been around the rear of the car.
00:01:05And this has hurt them a lot. Very, very hard.
00:01:07And what's happening, you're seeing sometimes what we call a cross-threading.
00:01:10When the nut goes in, doesn't go on properly, there's Austin.
00:01:13So that was the last round of pit stops. Still got a bit of a drama.
00:01:17Now, just so we're clear, all the parts that use, the wheels and components around the rear, are control parts.
00:01:23To verify that, here I want to put up some drawings.
00:01:25All the teams have these drawings. There you are.
00:01:27There's a drawing of what we call a control wheel.
00:01:29All specified, everyone has it.
00:01:31Here's another one of the control nut.
00:01:33There he is, that part there.
00:01:35There's the drawing, all specified, dimensions, everything.
00:01:38The other one, this is a spindle.
00:01:40This is what holds the rear wheel on.
00:01:42If we look at the drawing, there it is again.
00:01:44Again, the rear spindle is all specified.
00:01:46So all those key components, you can't change them.
00:01:49Except there is one rule I want to show you here.
00:01:52Rear spindle.
00:01:53And there's one here that says thread direction and length are free.
00:01:57Length are free.
00:01:58Now, in my position on the pit lane, I'm very privileged.
00:02:01I get to go in and out of everyone's garages.
00:02:04And I won't abuse that by telling people what other people are doing.
00:02:06However, this area of the car is out and open for everyone to see.
00:02:10And my observation is, well, before I show you that, let me just show you.
00:02:13I've shown you before, here's a nut.
00:02:16It's captured in the wheel.
00:02:17That goes on the hub.
00:02:19Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
00:02:20Up it goes and it locks in.
00:02:22Now, that won't undo until I press that red button to undo it again.
00:02:26Now, that red button is pushed in on our rattle gun here by that little spigot there.
00:02:31Okay, we've seen that.
00:02:32Now, if I unwind that again, look at my drawing.
00:02:36So this is a drawing of this.
00:02:37Up and down pit lane, I can tell you, every single car I've looked at on the rear in this
00:02:42area here has around about 12 threads.
00:02:47Ford Performance Racing exclusively have an extra three or four threads there.
00:02:53Okay?
00:02:54So that goes out.
00:02:55So what that does is denies them of what we call a little bit of lead-in.
00:02:59Now, what does that all mean?
00:03:00What that means, when you have the wheel nut in the wheel like that and the boys put it
00:03:05up like that, because it captures that first thread earlier, this can still be at ever so
00:03:11slight an angle when it starts to take up.
00:03:14And that's danger territory.
00:03:15Now, I'm not proposing that is their problem.
00:03:18I just think it very much could be part, because they're different to everyone else.
00:03:21Spare a thought, though, for the guys on the team.
00:03:23I know them.
00:03:24They're a great bunch of young guys.
00:03:26They are very, very good at what they do.
00:03:28So that's not the issue.
00:03:29But what this might mean is they've got to apply themselves that much harder to getting
00:03:34that nut up and square and in and aligning it before they pull the trigger on the rattle
00:03:39gun.
00:03:39Sounds pretty easy, except they're trying to do it in four seconds.
00:03:43It all happens fast.
00:03:44Well done, Larko.
00:03:45A good explanation, too.
00:03:46And you may have found the critical factor, the proper racing line there, thanks to Penright.
00:03:51So race 18 ahead of us.
00:03:53Remember, we had the 60-60 Super Sprint format yesterday, taken out by Jamie Wincup.
00:03:57So it's a change in format.
00:03:59100 kilometres, 35 laps.
00:04:01They must use both combinations of the Dunlop tyre, the control tyre, soft and hard.
00:04:06So a pit stop comes into play for this one.
00:04:09And Ford Performance Racing may well have the chance here to turn things around.
00:04:13They have qualified second and third on the grid.
00:04:16Mark Winterbottom starting alongside our pole sitter, James Courtney.
00:04:20And Will Davison will be on the second row of the grid with Fabian Coulthard.
00:04:23David Reynolds, the Bottle O'FPR forward, starting from position eight.
00:04:28It was an interesting qualifying session that determined the grid for this race.
00:04:32Remember, earlier in the day, they do back-to-back qualifying segments for the two races.
00:04:37James Courtney broke a three-year pole drought and stopped a run of seven straight forward pole sitters at Hidden Valley.
00:04:44The whole field was separated by just under a second.
00:04:47Time for our national anthem now to be performed by Damien Wicks.
00:04:50Australians, oh, let us rejoice, for we are young and free.
00:05:01With golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is cut by sea.
00:05:12Our land abounds in ages, gifts of beauty rich and red.
00:05:23In history's page, let every stage advance Australia, faith.
00:05:36In joyful strength and let us sing, advance Australia, faith.
00:05:49This guy's an exciting story in V8 supercars.
00:06:0222 years of age, Chas Mostert at his best qualifying result in 13th on the grid.
00:06:06Chas, nice to be up in this top half of the field.
00:06:09Yeah, it certainly is, but after seeing yesterday, I'm not too sure if it's a good spot to be in.
00:06:13How are you finding it, mate, settling into V8 supercars?
00:06:15How different is it from what you've been doing?
00:06:17It's pretty hard.
00:06:18You know, you're racing against 28 guys on this field, which are just in an unbelievable level in their career.
00:06:23And it's so hard to race them with my kind of experience.
00:06:26But I'm definitely learning quickly and definitely enjoying it.
00:06:30Chas, you're doing a great job and you should be very proud.
00:06:31Good luck today, mate.
00:06:32All the best.
00:06:32Thank you very much, guys.
00:06:33Guys, come for a walk because just up here ahead of Chas, and this explains the depth of this field.
00:06:39But in front of me, he has Jason Bright here.
00:06:41I mean, if you're going to tag on the back of someone, Bright, he's obviously the guy to follow through.
00:06:45And then the experience of Todd Kelly, but I might just try and grab a quick word with Bridie.
00:06:49And Jason, a good spot to be just on the edge of the top 10 here and another good opportunity for Team BOC today.
00:06:56Yeah, well, we've got a little bit of work to do.
00:06:57It's a little bit further back than what we'd like.
00:06:59But, you know, it's going to be a long race.
00:07:02You know, this soft tyre on this surface is, you know, a bit of a challenge.
00:07:06So, it's going to play, you know, into strategy.
00:07:09I think there'll be a fair bit of strategy involved, particularly if it's a safety car early.
00:07:13So, we're just going to have to see how it pans out.
00:07:14We can all get around first lap.
00:07:16That'll be good.
00:07:16Just get the feeling this is your bread and butter today, Bridie.
00:07:18All the best.
00:07:19Cheers, Bratz.
00:07:20We will have a good one today.
00:07:22We move further forward, and you're moving into the big guns here.
00:07:25Shane Van Gisbergen straight ahead here and beside him.
00:07:28Jamie Wincup, who had a disappointing qualifying result by his standards.
00:07:32And right ahead here.
00:07:33I mean, this is really a great little battle pack on the field.
00:07:36Jono Webb just here and Dave Reynolds, who had so much to prove from yesterday,
00:07:40got so close and then an unfortunate incident with Mark Winterbottom.
00:07:43But I might have to grab a quick word with Jono.
00:07:45Jono, good spot to be.
00:07:46Just well within sight of the lead of this bunch here.
00:07:50Good spot to start.
00:07:52Yeah, exactly right.
00:07:52No, really happy to be further up the grid today.
00:07:55Hopefully that'll keep us out of all the carnage.
00:07:57And I think, again, tyres are going to be a huge thing today.
00:08:00So, it's pretty warm out here again.
00:08:02We'll just wait and see how it plays out.
00:08:03And for us, we'll just chip along, stick to our strategy,
00:08:06and fingers crossed we've got the pace at the end.
00:08:08Jono, just the top end.
00:08:09How's the driver comfort meter?
00:08:11It's all right.
00:08:12It always is up here.
00:08:13But we've got cool air.
00:08:14We've got the cool suit going flat out.
00:08:16And fingers crossed it works all the way to the end.
00:08:18All right.
00:08:18All the best, Jono.
00:08:19Good luck.
00:08:19Thanks, Mark.
00:08:20It's been a good weekend for Techno Autosports.
00:08:22Shane Van Gisbergen on the podium yesterday.
00:08:25And Jonathan Webb, as Barrett said, really been pushing through the field.
00:08:28And by the way, happy birthday to our Mark Barretta.
00:08:30He's having a good day.
00:08:31If you'd like to send him a message, jump on Twitter.
00:08:33Use the hashtag V8SC.
00:08:36Good on you, old mate.
00:08:36Send cake if you like, Matt.
00:08:38We'll be putting on a special performance for you later on by the pool.
00:08:42Like on Matt's guitars.
00:08:43That'll be a highlight of the day.
00:08:46Enjoy it, mate.
00:08:47Thanks, Matty.
00:08:48Getting set now for race 18.
00:08:50Love that nervous weight when they're all gridding up.
00:08:58They know that the grid is about to be cleared of all the spectators, all the fans who are privileged enough to be down there.
00:09:04There is James Courtney to start from pole position for the first time since Winton back in 2010.
00:09:10The two Holden Racing Team cars have been right on the money this weekend.
00:09:14Garth Tander got crunched yesterday when he was in a good position.
00:09:17And it's great to see Courtney back and back at the front.
00:09:21It's been a while.
00:09:22He got a message from Dario Franchitti, no less, to wish him all the very best.
00:09:28They're good mates.
00:09:29So great support from the other side of the world from another motorsport champion.
00:09:32And here's our racetrack in the theatre that we'll play on this afternoon.
00:09:362.87 kilometres for the Darwin Hidden Valley layout.
00:09:3914 corners.
00:09:40A couple of things to focus on here.
00:09:41It'll be a 600 metre run from that start-finish line into turn one.
00:09:45Brakes, well, high stress and high wear.
00:09:48Fifth on the 14 event tour.
00:09:51Medium bump rating.
00:09:52Very high tyre wear.
00:09:54And that's going to be a talking point this afternoon.
00:09:56And it's also very slippery as we've detailed.
00:09:59Neil, Tim Edwards from Pepsi Max Racing said earlier today,
00:10:01they were all about regrouping today.
00:10:03Well, they've done that.
00:10:04Mark Winterbottom on the front row here, Frosty.
00:10:06Look, yesterday was, let's just say it was full of colour and excitement.
00:10:09Today is a day of redemption for you guys.
00:10:12Yeah, it is.
00:10:13Yeah, yesterday was disappointing.
00:10:14But the team were good.
00:10:16We had a chat last night.
00:10:17And it's now clear what we're meant to do with each other,
00:10:20which it was always that grey area.
00:10:22Can you race?
00:10:22Can you not?
00:10:23We've been told we can race each other.
00:10:25So, yeah, so that's a good thing.
00:10:27And off the front row, so hopefully, yeah,
00:10:29we can get back on the podium, all three of us.
00:10:32So, yeah, tough day yesterday, but let's bounce back today.
00:10:36Speaking of the front row, this is a classic, the ones we love.
00:10:38It's James Courtney in the HRT, you in the Pepsi Max Falcon.
00:10:42How are you feeling about this one?
00:10:43Can you get this done off the start?
00:10:45I got him yesterday.
00:10:47So, law of averages.
00:10:48We've only done one, though.
00:10:49So, who knows?
00:10:51It's a bit different.
00:10:52You get on the front row, there's that tension.
00:10:54You've got to deal with the, you know, the excitement and the adrenaline.
00:10:58And, you know, who knows?
00:11:00The start lines of these things are horrible.
00:11:01They don't want to go.
00:11:03A lot of horsepower, not much tyre, and it just spins.
00:11:05So, let's hope she hooks in my one and we can get to turn one first.
00:11:09But make sure we finish first.
00:11:11That's probably the more important thing.
00:11:12Excellent.
00:11:12Frosty, all the best.
00:11:13Just give JC a bit of a wave across there, mate, if you like.
00:11:15This handsome, I stopped you from looking.
00:11:17What are you doing?
00:11:18Is he doing anything?
00:11:18He's waving to you, just saying g'day and all the best.
00:11:21There, that's sportsmanship, guys.
00:11:23James Courtney now buckled in, strapped in and all set to go.
00:11:25Mark Witterbottom right here.
00:11:27This is going to be a classic race off the start line.
00:11:30It certainly will be.
00:11:31And Mark Witterbottom's starts have been very, very good.
00:11:34Courtney, if he'd be on the front row of the grid after such a long period of time
00:11:38of not being on pole position, this will be a lot of pressure on James
00:11:42to get that car away and wink up uncharacteristically back in the field in fifth.
00:11:48So, this will be a toughie.
00:11:50And one of the things you've really got to consider right now is what tyre and how long
00:11:56the soft tyre will live.
00:11:58They've got to do 100 kilometres.
00:11:59They've got to use both compounds.
00:12:01And there's only two cars in the field, Dean Fiore and Russell Engle, on the soft tyre.
00:12:05I would have started James Courtney on the soft tyre today because I would have tried to make
00:12:10the start better because of the soft tyre initial traction and less wheel spin and also just
00:12:16to run as long as you can possibly run on the soft tyre.
00:12:19So, interesting strategy for none of the lead cars to do that.
00:12:2330 seconds, 30 seconds, signal.
00:12:33Sounds weird.
00:12:34It's got a weird, it was either, it sounded like on seven cylinders or it had a transmission
00:12:40and a strange noise.
00:12:45Thank you, safety car.
00:12:46Did you think that?
00:12:50I haven't heard that before in Jamie Winkup's car.
00:12:53Green flag formation lap commencing.
00:12:57A bit of the gamesmanship already started there.
00:12:59What you do on the warm-up lap is you get away better than the other guy and Courtney did
00:13:02that.
00:13:02Let's have a look at the Fuso starting grid, race number 18 and the pole position for the
00:13:08first time in three years for Courtney.
00:13:10Winterbottom's got form, notwithstanding yesterday's drama, he's quick here.
00:13:14So has Will Davis and Fabian Coulthard's done a much better job in this one.
00:13:17Then it's Jamie Winkup and how about Tim Slade?
00:13:19Season best qualifying performance.
00:13:21John O'Webb for Daryl Lee, followed by David Reynolds and he'll start from the pole in the
00:13:25next one.
00:13:26Then Shane Van Gisbergen, nine for VIP Pet Foods and Craig Lowndes in the wars yesterday,
00:13:31starts out of position 10.
00:13:33Jason Bright in 11, he'll have Todd Kelly next to him.
00:13:35Bright is now third in the championship.
00:13:37These two youngsters in their rookie seasons, Chas Mostert and Scott McLaughlin with Garth
00:13:43Tander, the old-timer and three-time race winner behind them with David Wall.
00:13:47Dean Fiore, the West Australian, Mauro Engel, the German for SP Tools Racing.
00:13:52Then a Frenchman in Alex Premer with Lee Holdsworth for Erebus in 20th.
00:13:56Tony Dalberto, Team Hyflex, has Michael Caruso, whose only victory in supercars came right
00:14:02here at this circuit.
00:14:04This is Russell Engel's 522nd V8 Supercar Australian Touring Car race.
00:14:10Northern Territory backing this weekend for Scotty Pye, Car 80 out of Lucas D'Umbrell Motorsport
00:14:15and Rick Kelly was the hard luck story out of qualifying for this race.
00:14:21He got caught up in traffic off the back of a top five run yesterday.
00:14:26The best ever performance for the Nissan Altima will start from 28th on the grid.
00:14:32Well, Scafie, just picking up on what you said about the noise in Jamie Wynkup's car and
00:14:35Mark Dutton's engineer is right here on the line.
00:14:37He obviously at the start, he stands right near the car.
00:14:40Dano, does that mean anything to you?
00:14:42Noise?
00:14:42Noise, possibly the transmission?
00:14:44First I've heard Ritz.
00:14:46I'm pretty confident in our sub-assembly.
00:14:47I think they've done a good job.
00:14:49We'll be right.
00:14:49All right, we'll wait and see.
00:14:50Thanks, mate.
00:14:50Cheers, mate.
00:15:02We're on board with the two guys on the front row of the grid.
00:15:07Courtney versus Winterbottom.
00:15:09Four, three, two, one.
00:15:10Davison right in behind Courtney.
00:15:12So if Courtney doesn't do this properly, the two FPR factory Falcons will pounce.
00:15:18We saw evidence yesterday of Jamie Wynkup being able to stay on the outside at turn one and
00:15:22make it stick, which gave him the inside running for the critical right-hander at turn five.
00:15:27That's what Winterbottom will be attempting to do.
00:15:29So will Fabian Coulthard out of position number four on the outside.
00:15:32We had a glimpse there of Wynkup back in fifth, but that puts him to the inside of the road.
00:15:38Grid is set.
00:15:40It's been three years since James Courtney won a race in the V8 Supercar.
00:15:44It's been 55 races since the Holden Racing team were on the top step.
00:15:49Mark Winterbottom wants his first win of the season.
00:15:51Race 18.
00:15:58This is play for keeps.
00:16:00This is all or nothing.
00:16:02Fabian Coulthard didn't get away too well, but look at the slingshot.
00:16:06That is James Courtney's Holden Racing team Commodore charging down to turn one.
00:16:13That was a great start.
00:16:14He got away very, very well.
00:16:15In fact, Winterbottom was right on the verge of jumping to start that time.
00:16:18Coulthard's got a good run up the inside here as well.
00:16:25He may displace Davison.
00:16:29That's going to be tricky getting into five side by side, but Will hangs on on the inside.
00:16:34Wynkup's clean on the inside of Davey, who's gone wide.
00:16:36The Bottlow entry, the green car, just lost some ground.
00:16:39Tim Slade there.
00:16:41Great bit of driving there, Davison and Coulthard.
00:16:44That was really high speed.
00:16:45No room for error between the two guys.
00:16:48Well done.
00:16:49Very high quality driving.
00:16:51Turn six is where it all went down yesterday.
00:16:54They go through cleanly this time around.
00:16:58Terrific start from James Courtney.
00:17:00That was a great jump.
00:17:06Huge pressure on Courtney to do that.
00:17:08He got away perfectly.
00:17:10As good a pole position start as we've seen for a long time.
00:17:13That was very, very good in terms of its first and second stage wheel spin.
00:17:17On board now with Coulthard right behind Davison down here at 265 kilometres an hour.
00:17:23Getting the run on him just makes the limiter not quite close enough to get down the inside.
00:17:29And now Winterbottom puts the pressure on Courtney also.
00:17:32We'll see Ingle back at the final corner at turn 13.
00:17:35Remember, he's on the softer tyre.
00:17:38He had a look up the inside of Mostop but decided it was better not to do it.
00:17:41And now Winterbottom has ranged quickly onto the back of James Courtney.
00:17:45It takes a couple of laps for tyre temps and pressures to normalise and brake temps to come up.
00:17:50Here comes Frosty.
00:17:51Look to the inside.
00:17:52Courtney covers.
00:17:56All four now have tightened up in this lead bunch.
00:17:59Coulthard's going with them.
00:18:01Looks like they've made gains with that car overnight.
00:18:04Courtney had to block pretty hard going into turn six.
00:18:08Reynolds around the outside was slayed.
00:18:10You've got to be very careful up here.
00:18:12Again, there's not much road.
00:18:16There'll be contact here.
00:18:17He can't get the two cars through there like that.
00:18:19Van Giersbergen now.
00:18:21He does a very, very good job.
00:18:23So does Todd Kelly.
00:18:24They all pounce on slay.
00:18:26John O'Webb has already got past David Reynolds.
00:18:28So one of the Techno Autosports Commodores has already made a leap.
00:18:32Now the other goes with him.
00:18:33They've been working in tandem.
00:18:35Craig Lowndes has a look down the middle of this long main straightaway.
00:18:40Oh, that was close too.
00:18:41For Dean Fiore, the Dodo insurance car is coming through on soft tyres.
00:18:49Fiore and Inder on soft tyres.
00:18:52This is Russell in 16th.
00:18:59That's Alex Premmer.
00:19:01Caught the curve at turn four.
00:19:03So the Frenchman had a wild ride through there.
00:19:05And it's on again at the lead at the moment.
00:19:07Winterbottom up the inside.
00:19:08But that gives Courtney the ideal line as they get to the next right-hander.
00:19:12Real pressure on the HRT man here.
00:19:15We've got to read the race properly now, Cropo, because James will be better off to let him go.
00:19:22To win this race, you're better off to let Mark Winterbottom go and hook on behind him.
00:19:26They're holding both of them up.
00:19:28In terms of your ultimate performance, you're better off to not have the massive battle right now.
00:19:35Good exit for Mark Winterbottom.
00:19:37And we'll see whether it translates.
00:19:38Three complete, mate.
00:19:39Great job.
00:19:40Keep on him.
00:19:41Long break.
00:19:41At the end of the straight.
00:19:44David Reynolds doing quick sector splits in seventh at the moment.
00:19:48He just started to get the benefit of the toe right at the very ending.
00:19:51You can see as we rode with Frosty.
00:19:53See James Brake.
00:19:54Brake light staying on.
00:19:55He's carrying the brake a long way through the corner.
00:19:59So he survives a critical zone that could be a passing spot.
00:20:04Where he's vulnerable.
00:20:07We've just seen a little bit of evidence of James Carr sliding a bit too much in the rear early in the race too, I reckon.
00:20:12This is the spot.
00:20:13And for Frosty, he had a drama here yesterday.
00:20:16The same maneuver he ended up running into David Reynolds.
00:20:20So he's a little bit mindful of the rear locking up there.
00:20:24Mark Winterbottom said on the grid, we've been cleared to race each other.
00:20:27So on that basis, if he hangs too wide at the turn in, at the hairpin at turn six,
00:20:32you'll have to be a bit careful that Will Davison doesn't jam the nose of the other Pepsi Max car up there as well.
00:20:37So the guy's on soft tyres.
00:20:39Dean Fiore's up into 10th position.
00:20:42Russell Engle to 13th.
00:20:44Fiore started 17th and Russell started 23rd.
00:20:47Very late downshift to 2nd there for Rusty.
00:20:52He just threw it down the inside.
00:20:55Found some airspace.
00:20:57Whacked it into 2nd gear and got on with it.
00:20:58Here's a move.
00:20:59Frosty down the inside.
00:21:01This is for the lead of the race.
00:21:02Courtney turns.
00:21:04He's got to get it done.
00:21:05There was a little rub.
00:21:05There was a little rub there.
00:21:09Mark creates too many of these racing issues for himself because he was up far enough that time
00:21:14that you've got to command track position.
00:21:17You've got to get the car up far enough to make that move stick.
00:21:20All right.
00:21:22McLaughlin goes to the soft tyre.
00:21:27Turn six.
00:21:29Was it a soft tyre?
00:21:30I didn't see.
00:21:31Yeah, it was.
00:21:32That's a heck of a long way to go on it.
00:21:38Dean Fiore, not surprisingly on the soft, is the fastest man in the race.
00:21:42A 1.11.45.
00:21:43He grabs another spot and moves inside the top ten.
00:21:46Engle won't be far behind him.
00:21:48Courtney's opened a little bit of an air gap here now.
00:21:51So the light's on behind the windscreen there.
00:21:52It is the soft tyre.
00:21:53I saw what I thought were the white markings on the sidewall.
00:21:56Pretty hard to see there.
00:21:57But you can see the orange light illuminated.
00:21:59Here's the gap again.
00:21:59But this last lap, Courtney's actually opened up some airspace.
00:22:030.6 last time through.
00:22:05And I think it even opened a little bit further.
00:22:07That doesn't being in the lead make a difference.
00:22:09We saw Winkup yesterday in the lead dominate this race.
00:22:12As soon as you're back in the pack a little bit,
00:22:14Winkup started fifth.
00:22:15He's still fifth.
00:22:16He's not fast enough at this point to put any pressure on Coulthard.
00:22:19In fact, Jonathan Webb's putting pressure on him.
00:22:21So Engle now down the inside of Tim Slade.
00:22:25That is for an 11th spot.
00:22:27Great job, Russell Engle.
00:22:29Fiori got past Shane Van Gisbergen there.
00:22:32He saw him coming down to turn one.
00:22:34Knows that he's on the soft tyre.
00:22:35Maro Engle, however, is on the grass.
00:22:39He was in 20 in position.
00:22:42Just to get yourself into perspective on the lap time.
00:22:46That's Webb down the inside.
00:22:48Four position and up to fifth.
00:22:49Good pass.
00:22:50Well done.
00:22:51Dean Fiori has done an 11-2.
00:22:53James Courtney's best lap is at 12-09.
00:22:56So it's basically nine tenths of a second faster
00:22:59than the guy who's leading the race.
00:23:01That's the difference.
00:23:02This is what happened to Maro Engle down at turn one on the replay
00:23:05and just literally ran wide.
00:23:06There may be something on the road down there.
00:23:08I think he just clipped the inside.
00:23:11Yeah, I heard someone on the radio a moment ago
00:23:12talking about something down there.
00:23:14Here we go.
00:23:14Here's the replay also of Webb.
00:23:16Darrell Lee entering easily underneath Jamie Wittcover.
00:23:19That little grip that involves Jamie
00:23:21is about to be assaulted by Fiori on the soft tyre.
00:23:23Here we go again at turn one.
00:23:24They're on the hard cut down there.
00:23:26Got it.
00:23:26This time he's got it done.
00:23:28Well done.
00:23:28James stays up high.
00:23:29Mark Winterbottom down low.
00:23:31Grabs the lead.
00:23:31Well done.
00:23:32That's the sort of pass.
00:23:33You've got to get there.
00:23:34Once you get there,
00:23:35you can't afford to not put the car
00:23:38absolutely alongside the car in front
00:23:40and command the position.
00:23:43There's no use being up to the door
00:23:45and having a half manoeuvre made.
00:23:48Yeah, just trying to follow up on Scotty McLaughlin
00:23:50and the logic in coming in so early.
00:23:52There was a drama with the set of tyres he was on.
00:23:55He wasn't happy, so he'd jump on them early.
00:23:57Now, that's going to benefit everyone
00:23:58because the whole field will now get to see,
00:24:00via Scott,
00:24:01how long a soft tyre will last.
00:24:03That'll be invaluable for the rest of the day.
00:24:06Yeah, they'll be looking closely at his timesheet
00:24:09and it now reads the fastest lap of the race,
00:24:11Larco, 110.989.
00:24:14So, three cars now out there on soft tyres.
00:24:17McLaughlin back in 28th.
00:24:18But Dean Fiore in 7th
00:24:20and Russell Eagle in 11th.
00:24:23Our race leader is Mark Winterbottom.
00:24:26Got past James Courtney.
00:24:27Will Davison in 3rd.
00:24:28As always, the Megawall tells quite a few different stories
00:24:36here at the Sky City Triple Crown Ford Performance Racing.
00:24:40Currently head down.
00:24:41A little bit nervous, but on the track.
00:24:44Well, the FPR Pepsi Max car of Will Davison
00:24:46has now got past James Courtney,
00:24:49so they'll be happier in pit lane
00:24:51because they're one and two on the road.
00:24:53Race control yet to be activated.
00:24:54Mark Winterbottom leads this now by three seconds.
00:24:57As soon as he took the lead, he skipped away.
00:25:00Poles in at court and he drops back to 3rd.
00:25:03Fabian Coulthard is there in 4th.
00:25:05Now, the purple and yellow car that you can see
00:25:07is the Dodo Insurance Commodore of Dean Fiore.
00:25:11Started on the soft tyre with Russell Ingle.
00:25:15Dino started in 17th.
00:25:16He's now pushed his way up to 5th.
00:25:18Russell is in 8th.
00:25:20And he's using every opportunity he can to mix it with the front of the field.
00:25:25There's no gap down there, which he quickly discovered.
00:25:28Meantime, at the back of the field, McLaughlin is also on that soft tyre.
00:25:31He keeps punching out fastest laps.
00:25:33He did a 10.6 on the last lap.
00:25:351 minute 10.6.
00:25:36This is Ingle up the inside during the break of Craig Lowndes.
00:25:42So, he's on the soft tyre as well.
00:25:44Yeah.
00:25:45He's having the time of his life.
00:25:46Watch this one.
00:25:47And then also down the inside of Turn 14 on Van Gisbergen.
00:25:50So, it's always good when you've got that little bit of advantage.
00:25:54Man, I'm hot today.
00:25:56So, those guys looking very speedy at the moment.
00:25:59They've still got a speed gain over those on the soft tyre.
00:26:02But, of course, it tapers with every lap faster than the guys on the hard tyre.
00:26:06So, they've got to make hay while they can in the case of Fiore and Ingle.
00:26:10So, if anything, at the moment, it's now starting to just get into that phase
00:26:14where the equalisation isn't far away.
00:26:17And McLaughlin, who has done the 10.6.3 as the fastest slab,
00:26:21versus Mark Winterbottom at 11.62.
00:26:23So, almost exactly one second faster.
00:26:26So, that's the gap that we keep making reference of with the soft tyre.
00:26:29We see Moho Engle in the pit for his soft tyres.
00:26:35And there'll be a time when there's this crossover that Neil's referring to
00:26:39of the soft tyre degrading to a point where it is no longer as fast
00:26:44as a good quality hard compound tyre.
00:26:48Fiore, very good job.
00:26:50He hasn't made any mistakes on the way through.
00:26:52He's up to fourth.
00:26:53He's going to get caught in without too much pain, too, I should think.
00:26:56James has been on the radio talking about no rear drive.
00:26:58We made the observation early in the race that, for me,
00:27:01the back of the car looked like it was sliding around too much.
00:27:04He's now confirmed that.
00:27:05He'll do everything he can to adjust that out of the car
00:27:09with the front and rear anti-roll bars.
00:27:11We can come in.
00:27:12And he's been struggling.
00:27:13In fact, we've been wondering what the tyre condition was of the tyres on that car.
00:27:18So, he's in now to grab the next set of boots.
00:27:21Here's Dean Fiore up the inside.
00:27:23Dodo Car Insurance.
00:27:24Nice pass.
00:27:25Bam, easy spot.
00:27:27There's the soft tyre now going on.
00:27:29The Red Bull Racing Australia holden.
00:27:32And McLaughlin, this early call will be interesting to see.
00:27:36Not only the length of time, but there he is.
00:27:38I was just about to say that he's going to come into contention
00:27:40because he had a huge amount of clear laps.
00:27:43He's done seven laps now on those soft tyres.
00:27:46Jamie will get an amazing wake-up call in terms of the grip and feel
00:27:51through the palms of his hands and the seat of his pants at the moment.
00:27:54And it's like a birthday.
00:27:56Everywhere he puts his foot on the brake pedal, it'll feel fantastic.
00:27:59When he turns the steering wheel, the car will grip up.
00:28:01When he grabs the throttle, it'll have traction.
00:28:03And it'll have that for the next four or five laps.
00:28:06And he's really got to make that work for him.
00:28:08And it's a good point, Schofer.
00:28:09You say there about McLaughlin getting clear laps on a soft tyre.
00:28:13The difference between him and the two guys that started on soft tyres,
00:28:16you can't milk the performance back in the pack in traffic.
00:28:20That's exactly right, Larko.
00:28:21And that's why I was really surprised that one of the front guys,
00:28:24especially when you're in the same team,
00:28:26to Winnebottom or Davison, for instance,
00:28:28to put one of them on the soft tyre,
00:28:30take the strategy play out and drive the car as long as you can on the soft tyre,
00:28:34I'm really surprised no-one did it.
00:28:36So it's Reynolds, Lowndes, Slade, Todd Kelly, Dalberto, James Moffat.
00:28:41Six cars have come in.
00:28:43David's the first to emerge with new boots on.
00:28:46Goal soft tyres, mate. Goal soft tyres.
00:28:48There's only 23 left to go.
00:28:49We've got to make it to the end.
00:28:50Win Cup's cleared Reynolds here in this manoeuvre.
00:28:58So McLaughlin's last lap was an 11 dead still.
00:29:01So that's eight laps on them.
00:29:03He's actually making them live pretty well at the moment.
00:29:04But remember, we always say these tyres,
00:29:07the terminology is they fall off the cliff.
00:29:10And that's a little bit of contact there with Jason Bright and Garth Tander.
00:29:17Turn one.
00:29:17So that's a 1.12.35.
00:29:21Will Davison is coming in now.
00:29:22So Davison will come in ahead of his teammate James Courtney's going to join him as well.
00:29:27So Winterbottom's lap there is a 1.12.35.
00:29:31Dean Fiore, who's second on the road, did a 1.11.8 on soft tyres that have gone 13 laps.
00:29:37And Alex Prim has done the fastest lap of the race on that last lap.
00:29:41Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:29:45And Courtney stays behind the Pepsi Max car.
00:29:49Here's Jason Bright in for softs as well.
00:29:50Strange exchange between he and Garth Tander down there at turn one a few moments ago.
00:29:55It was, wasn't it?
00:29:57It's one of those unnecessary contacts.
00:29:59You don't really need to do that.
00:30:01This is critical.
00:30:01So this is McLaughlin.
00:30:03We said how much this was going to advance his position in the field.
00:30:07So he actually gets by the man who was second in the race.
00:30:11That's how far he's come forward.
00:30:13However, he's been on the tyre for so long that his tyre will degrade as Davison comes back at him.
00:30:19He gets the value of the undercut, gives him track position, but does he have the longevity?
00:30:24That's the question.
00:30:27He's Winterbottom in now.
00:30:27Race leader had a 4.2 second lead from Dean Fiore, who's marched through the field.
00:30:35That's much harder, getting in through that little less.
00:30:37Remember Craig Lowndes crashed there, getting into the Pets.
00:30:40He actually parked it right in the middle of the tyres.
00:30:42It looks easy, but you're trying to get every little bit of yield.
00:30:49David Reynolds, very fast sector splits.
00:30:52Nice calm stop.
00:30:55Now this will be interesting to see.
00:30:56Had Marge, and there should have been enough buffer, it looked like an efficient stop.
00:31:00He should clearly get out.
00:31:01Look at Will, having a good go here, and he's got him.
00:31:06So Winterbottom comes out ahead of his team-mate.
00:31:10So that's effective first position.
00:31:13That was important for Will to clear Scott, otherwise he could hang up there for a while.
00:31:17And he was told, he said, these tyres are seven laps older.
00:31:21He said, mate, I've already got him.
00:31:24110.2, boys, is the new marker for fastest lap done by Craig Lowndes last time around.
00:31:31So Scotty McLaughlin, 20 years of age.
00:31:35They're asking him to do 31 laps on these soft tyres.
00:31:41It's a big call.
00:31:42Here's what happened.
00:31:42This is where the exchange occurred.
00:31:44So it'd be Will down the inside, turn 14.
00:31:48Good pass.
00:31:49A little bit of airspace down there, and he uses it to great advantage.
00:31:52And that's just where we caught that radio exchange, right at that point.
00:31:56Now the difference with the car of the future and the way that you've got to use the control tyre
00:32:01is that in the old days, you could change the roll centre, remember, when you put the other tyre on.
00:32:06So if the car wasn't good in the first segment of the race, you'd change tyres and you could have got on with a change in the car.
00:32:11You can't do that now.
00:32:13The drivers are going to live with the changes they made before the start of this race.
00:32:17It's a much different dynamic, much harder on the driver to get the best out of these tyres.
00:32:22Courtney's going to grab McLaughlin here as well as soon as this braking area into turn one, and he's done it.
00:32:27So we're beginning to see the effects now of the ageing soft tyre on McLaughlin.
00:32:32Got himself track position using the undercut process, but now it's beginning to hurt.
00:32:36Here's his teammate, Alex Premmer.
00:32:39Alex is down in 17th at the moment.
00:32:41He's got the soft tyre on, and Dean Fiore's got a lead of 4.2 seconds.
00:32:51Back at Hidden Valley as Jamie Winkup goes past Scott McLaughlin, who's a bit of a victim at the moment.
00:32:5813 laps he's done on those soft tyres, and this fresh batch of cars that have come out with the new boots are going sailing on past.
00:33:06Pretty soon it will be David Reynolds that he sees, and then Craig Lowndes.
00:33:11So McLaughlin's got a real job on his hands.
00:33:13So Dean Fiore leads the race, yet to pit.
00:33:16He's got Russell Ingle with him, and as predicted, both those cars go at the same time.
00:33:22So Russell Ingle second, Shane Van Gisbergen third.
00:33:25Ingle has just entered pit lane with Van Gisbergen.
00:33:28So the field is not far away from being cleansed completely.
00:33:33There they are on the right-hand side of screen, taking the service to get those Dunlop soft tyres on.
00:33:38While we're in the break, Fabian Kultard came in and changed tyres out of position two.
00:33:44And his car looks a lot better today.
00:33:46So to begin with, he'll be buried in the field, but just on young tyres, he will side through quite a number of them.
00:33:52So Ingle, of course, going back to the hard tyre, I should say.
00:33:55So Ingle to the hard tyre now, and Van Gisbergen to the soft tyre because of the alternate strategies.
00:34:00Very close there with Lowndes and Reynolds on the way into turn one.
00:34:08Lowndes looks pretty aggressive, trying to carve his way back through the field.
00:34:13A bad qualifying performance.
00:34:18So your effective leader still will be Mark Winterbottom, who's in third on the track.
00:34:24From Davison, Courtney, Winkup, Reynolds, Lowndes, McLaughlin, Premas, Slade, Todd Kelly.
00:34:29So the two Fiori in now.
00:34:34Guys, I'm just really keen to see how hot these tyres get now.
00:34:37Deep Fiori's come in with this soft tyre we talked about.
00:34:39I'm round the back here.
00:34:40This is left rear tyre.
00:34:43And we've got 114 degrees centigrade.
00:34:47And in case you know, you've got a drama around this side, haven't you?
00:34:50Remember, water boils at 100, so that's 114 degrees centigrade on that tyre right here on the pit lane.
00:34:56Out on the circuit, middle of a corner.
00:34:58You'll see probably closer to 140 degrees centigrade.
00:35:01They are punished.
00:35:03That right rear wheel change was very slow then, Larko, when you're on the other side of the car.
00:35:09Meantime, Coulthard has predicted.
00:35:10Here comes Lowndes, by the way, down the inside of Reynolds.
00:35:14Fabio Coulthard, very quick.
00:35:15He's just done a new, faster slap of the race at 10.1.
00:35:17He's 14th at the moment.
00:35:18So he's midfield, but with very young tyres and what appears to be pretty good car balance.
00:35:24We will keep an eye out on him.
00:35:25And enough time, too, to push through.
00:35:27Another 16 full laps to go.
00:35:30So these guys are an interesting little battle group of Lowndes and Reynolds.
00:35:33We know that they've both had good qualifying pace.
00:35:37Of course, Lowndes has made a mistake yesterday in the 60-60 to go back down the field in qualifying.
00:35:43But they're both on exactly the same strategy in terms of tyres.
00:35:47So they've got exactly the same tyre life.
00:35:49They'll be battling.
00:35:50And remember that Fiori now has the opposite effect.
00:35:53He was able to slice through everybody in the first portion of the race.
00:35:56Now he's on the harder tyre.
00:35:57And it's harder for him to keep his elbows up.
00:35:59So he's getting chopped up at the moment.
00:36:01Tanda's going to be the next one that grabs him.
00:36:04And he'll be really affected by exactly that, Neil.
00:36:06The steering weight will be less.
00:36:07The mid-corner grip less.
00:36:09The amount of throttle you can have on the car.
00:36:10Where you actually brake the car.
00:36:12Every single dynamic effect of the car will have less efficiency, less grip.
00:36:17All the things that the driver likes, he now won't like.
00:36:21Coulthard's now done a 10-1.
00:36:23That's very quick in these conditions.
00:36:25And he is 13.7 seconds from the lead of the race.
00:36:29And he's 14th.
00:36:30So he's going to have an advantage of anywhere between three quarters of a second to a second
00:36:34for a good half a dozen to 10 laps.
00:36:36This is the only car still out there yet to complete a stop.
00:36:42And it's Scott Pye.
00:36:43And, Sky, for you to add to your comments, mate,
00:36:45there's a driver psychology issue goes on, isn't it?
00:36:47We talked about Russell Indle out there before,
00:36:49blazing along on his soft tyres, overtaking everyone.
00:36:51It feels great at that point of time.
00:36:53But equally so, when you're getting bombarded in the second half of the race,
00:36:56you get frustrated, you're driving offline, you're looking in your mirror,
00:36:59and it's not a way you want to drive the car.
00:37:02It doesn't put you in the right frame of mind.
00:37:04100% Larko, that's exactly right.
00:37:06You've got to acclimatise.
00:37:07You've got to get your brain around what is the new track condition,
00:37:10what level of grip have you got under the car,
00:37:14and drive it accordingly.
00:37:16Reynolds goes straight past Pye, who's a sitting duck at the moment.
00:37:19He'll have to head in shortly.
00:37:21Good work.
00:37:22Drive it nicely straight.
00:37:23Good 14 laps to go.
00:37:24We go forward more on that bias.
00:37:26We'll go after the rear.
00:37:27Mark Winterbottom is our race leader,
00:37:30searching for his first victory of the season.
00:37:33And it's going to be a fascinating finale to this one.
00:37:41As we head towards the back end of race 18 of the championship,
00:37:44this incident is now under investigation down here at Turn 5.
00:37:50Jonathan Webb, contact with Scott Pye.
00:37:55Ecole Commodore with Northern Territory Shipping backing this weekend.
00:37:59They've been made honorary Territorians, the crew and Scotty.
00:38:03But it hasn't gone to plan here.
00:38:08Winterbottom leads by 1.8 seconds.
00:38:12Davison is second.
00:38:13Courtney is third.
00:38:14We're keeping our eyes really closely on this man,
00:38:17Fabian Coulthard, down in tenth.
00:38:20Who's got young tyres on the car.
00:38:22He's only done six laps of them,
00:38:23of the cars inside the top ten.
00:38:25It's only he and Jonathan Webb with so few kilometres on those tyres.
00:38:30Interesting, though, from my remark a few moments ago,
00:38:33he's actually lost ground relative to the leader.
00:38:35He's now 15.1 seconds behind.
00:38:37But the traffic impact has been pretty significant here.
00:38:40He's had to thread his way through a lot of people.
00:38:42They've been all over the shop now.
00:38:44This is Lowndes and Wincup battling for fourth and fifth.
00:38:48And that's Lowndes climbing up over the top of his teammate for a position.
00:38:52So Winterbottom's got a 2.1 second lead over his teammate Davison.
00:38:56Courtney's the lone ranger for the Holden Racing Team
00:38:58because Garth Tand is back in 14th at the moment.
00:39:03And we saw the exchange between the Red Bull duo of Lowndes and Wincup.
00:39:07Then it's Reynolds, Premat, Slade, Webb, Coulthard.
00:39:09That's your ten.
00:39:12Sorry, Combo.
00:39:13This has been very impressive, Winterbottom.
00:39:14We said that he had to fight back from yesterday.
00:39:16It's been a very, very good performance.
00:39:18Very good drive.
00:39:19Nice and smooth.
00:39:24Technique is really balanced.
00:39:27You see this very minimal steering inputs.
00:39:32You see the one turn.
00:39:34Nice amount of steering lock.
00:39:37Quite relaxed about it.
00:39:38End to go.
00:39:392.2 to will now.
00:39:43So let's have a bit of a look at this.
00:39:44We'll ride with Frosty.
00:39:45Looks pretty relaxed on the run down to turn one.
00:39:47Crank up the audio and enjoy 2.87 kilometres around here.
00:39:502.87 kilometres around here.
00:39:502.87 kilometres around here.
00:39:55Snark.
00:39:565.
00:39:581.
00:39:581.
00:39:59redictor.
00:40:00Greyoe.
00:40:006.
00:40:007.
00:40:02languages around here.
00:40:041.
00:40:052.
00:40:052.
00:40:051.
00:40:072.
00:40:073.
00:40:084.
00:40:081.
00:40:082.
00:40:093.
00:40:091.
00:40:103.
00:40:113.
00:40:121.
00:40:131.
00:40:132.
00:40:144.
00:40:161.
00:40:16Jazz.
00:40:175.
00:40:173.
00:40:181.
00:40:192.
00:40:193.
00:40:201.
00:40:211.
00:40:211.
00:40:22Comprimar.
00:40:222.
00:40:234.
00:40:242.
00:40:24And if you look at that technique and privilege
00:40:54to be on board with the leader, we commented yesterday about the dramas he had with his
00:41:00team mate, they were probably fast enough to have at least pressured Winkup and certainly
00:41:04been close to winning.
00:41:05Today they are at the front.
00:41:07One, two at the moment, Winterbottom and Davison.
00:41:10That lap was perfect, it was millimetre perfect.
00:41:13Every corner used, all the road, nice steering inputs, beautiful throttle modulation.
00:41:18That's why they're there.
00:41:19The cars are the best in the field in terms of their tyre life.
00:41:23So very, very good bounce back.
00:41:25That was for position there.
00:41:27Fabien Coulthard's gone to ninth over Tim Slade, tenth.
00:41:31Slade's straight line performance wasn't too bad either, watching that with close proximity.
00:41:36So this is Mauro Engel, Scott Pye who got in strife there, Russell Engel and Scott Pye.
00:41:41There's a little love bite there in the middle of turn one.
00:41:44Both the Norton Nissan Altimas down the order here as well.
00:41:48James Moffat and Michael Caruso have been a bit quiet this weekend, 26 and 7.
00:41:54So the fastest guy in the leading group at the moment on the last lap was actually Lowndes.
00:41:58He's fourth at the moment.
00:42:00Just a tenth or two in it for him.
00:42:02But Craig is six seconds from the lead of the race.
00:42:06It's going to be a big job to try and claw back a margin like that.
00:42:08Particularly when, as you said Mark, we had the privilege of riding with Frosty there.
00:42:12It was all gentle wheel work, not overstressing the car.
00:42:15There's a bit of overstress going on here.
00:42:17There'll be some overstress in a second.
00:42:19It doesn't work at the top.
00:42:21Caruso in the foreground, then Moffat next in the queue.
00:42:27A lot of dirt being dug out from behind the curb up there.
00:42:30Turns 9.10 in that area.
00:42:33There's been a couple of times this year where the Norton Nissan Altimas have been the lead cars for the Nissan brand.
00:42:40But this weekend, as you said, Neil, they don't look to have quite the pace of the Kelly brothers.
00:42:45As we see Corbdard get down the inside of Prema over eighth position.
00:42:50So at the moment, Todd Kelly is the lead Jack Daniels car.
00:42:54He's 11th. He's right behind Tim Slade in 10th.
00:42:58Remember that Webb, the head of the queue of cars here, just gone off to the left of screen.
00:43:03His tire age is the same as Fabian's.
00:43:05So those two guys, Jonathan Webb, car 19 on screen at the moment for Daryl Lee and Fabian Coulthard.
00:43:12Both those guys grab tires at the same time.
00:43:14So they've now done 10 laps apiece on their Dunlop soft tire.
00:43:17And Webb's probably had better performance than Corbdard, hasn't he?
00:43:21He's actually increased the gap since they've come out.
00:43:24So that's a very good performance.
00:43:25We said yesterday Jonathan Webb's performance was good.
00:43:28This is another rehash of that.
00:43:30He's in sixth position. He's catching Winkup.
00:43:32He qualified seventh.
00:43:34Lowndes is catching Courtney for the bottom step of the podium.
00:43:39In fact, if anything, Coulthard and BJR and Lockwood running him long may have actually hurt.
00:43:44Because when you look at the fact that he qualified fourth and he's now battling in eighth, it hasn't played well for them.
00:43:59All the boxes indicate that Lowndes is closing in on James Courtney.
00:44:03There's only been three races out of the 17 that we've had this season where at least one of the Red Bull Racing Australia drivers has missed out on the podium.
00:44:14So Lowndes can get that spot.
00:44:18He will get ahead of the pole sitter.
00:44:22But he's running out of laps.
00:44:24Courtney does look stronger in the back half of this race on the soft tyre.
00:44:28On the hard tyre, Neil made comments straight away.
00:44:31We heard the comments from Courtney about the rear of the car sliding.
00:44:34That was particularly bad on the hard tyre at the start of this race.
00:44:38Right now, the pressure is on James to stay on the podium for race 18.
00:44:44Jonathan Webb did a 1.11.1 on that lap.
00:44:46He was a couple of tenths quicker than the race leader.
00:44:48And Coulthard did an 11.7.
00:44:50He's trying to get up the inside of David Reynolds.
00:44:52But again, Lowndes made three tenths of a second on James Courtney on that lap.
00:44:57So Courtney could be under threat from Lowndes on current timing trend.
00:45:02And one of the things that come out of the run that Dean Fiore did on his soft tyre.
00:45:07So he's the only guy that we can make reference of now.
00:45:10Caught that down the inside of Dave Reynolds.
00:45:12Turn five.
00:45:13Good pass.
00:45:14Good job.
00:45:15In the last three laps of Dean Fiore's soft tyre run, he did 15 laps.
00:45:19The last three laps he lost a second and a half.
00:45:23So as they go away, this is this whole inference of falling off the cliff.
00:45:27As they go away, they don't go away in a linear decline.
00:45:31They go to an edge and off the cliff.
00:45:34Courtney chewing away on the back of the FPR Falcon here at the moment.
00:45:39It's close enough to be a pest.
00:45:40A lot of soul searching in the Pepsi Max garage last night and plans were made, Tim Edwards.
00:45:48Clearly, I know this race is not won and done yet, but you'd be satisfied with the way it's going.
00:45:52Yeah.
00:45:53Look, I mean, so far so good.
00:45:54But five laps to go.
00:45:55I'm not counting my chickens yet.
00:45:56But, yeah, sadly, I mean, we regrouped last night.
00:45:59You know, we had a big man hug.
00:46:01You know, as I said earlier, you know, we've got to be a team to win.
00:46:05And, you know, we needed everybody pulling in the same direction.
00:46:07And after late yesterday, it would have been pretty easy for us to all head off in different directions.
00:46:11And I think, you know, what's going on at the moment demonstrates that we did a good job of that last night.
00:46:15I mean, as you say, it's not over yet.
00:46:17But I think we've got fast cars.
00:46:19We've had fast cars all year.
00:46:20We just haven't executed on a few occasions.
00:46:23So hopefully we can do that today.
00:46:25Tim, speaking of fast cars, can Will hold out James Courtney?
00:46:28I think so.
00:46:29There's a fair bit of time management going on by all of them at the moment.
00:46:31I think he's actually pulled a little bit of a gap just in that last lap.
00:46:34I saw him pull away.
00:46:35So I think, yeah, I think he'll be all right.
00:46:37Great recovery, mate.
00:46:38Well done.
00:46:39Thanks, mate.
00:46:40Two Ford Performance Racing after yesterday's disaster to take a deep breath.
00:46:44Different characters, different personalities.
00:46:46And they put them all on the table and came back and delivered today.
00:46:50Tim Slade, Alex Premer just exchanging paint there now.
00:46:53Lowndes, I noticed before.
00:46:54Oh, more than paint.
00:46:57Lucky didn't end up, actually, half a chance to pop the tyre off the rim there.
00:47:00But lucky didn't end up breaking the front left suspension.
00:47:02Here it is again from the other angle.
00:47:04Looks pretty violent.
00:47:05It was violent.
00:47:06There will definitely have been steering components from that.
00:47:09There's still alignment required.
00:47:10Yeah.
00:47:11So just watch out for Lowndes because he's definitely threatening Courtney now.
00:47:15He's closed right up on that grip.
00:47:17That's a big whack.
00:47:19Look at the distortion in the tyre and the rim.
00:47:22Doesn't look healthy there at all at the moment.
00:47:23We'll keep an eye on that.
00:47:24There's Lowndes.
00:47:25He's close enough to be a factor now.
00:47:27So this is actually going to heat up nicely between Davison, Courtney and Lowndes.
00:47:31These guys are battling for second, third and fourth.
00:47:34Frosty's got a 4.2 second lead.
00:47:36And Jonathan Webb is the fastest guy of the top six.
00:47:39So Lowndes has been consistently faster than Courtney, who's ahead of him.
00:47:43But Courtney has been consistently faster than Davison, who is in second spot.
00:47:48So the man really under attack here is Will.
00:47:53By both.
00:47:56He's not looking strong at all at the moment, Davison.
00:47:59Even the corner exit there was down, fortunately, by comparison to Courtney.
00:48:03James will have a nibble here at the end of the straight if he can just stay in that draft.
00:48:07I don't think he'll let him go straight away.
00:48:12But that's very deep under brakes for Courtney.
00:48:15Can he get it stopped?
00:48:16He does.
00:48:17Great pass.
00:48:18Well done.
00:48:19They bumped.
00:48:20Very, very good pass.
00:48:21And Lowndes.
00:48:22Watch this into turn five.
00:48:24So you can see a bit of oversteer there for Davison.
00:48:27Lowndes now.
00:48:28He'll do the crisscross.
00:48:29He'll fire over the inside and down the inside he goes.
00:48:32Great move.
00:48:33Well done.
00:48:34I saw Will's car sliding off turn 14 and you know that means he can't get to 100% throttle.
00:48:41And every metre that passes before you get to wide open throttle is going to hurt you with the terminal speed.
00:48:46That was why Courtney was able to get that done at the end.
00:48:49And with a very committed braking point down there too.
00:48:54That was the example of the end of straight pass that we made reference to with Mark Winterbottom earlier.
00:49:00Courtney had one opportunity to get that done.
00:49:03Fire down there.
00:49:04He made it.
00:49:05He made it.
00:49:06Although it was difficult.
00:49:07He made it to the corner.
00:49:08Got it turned.
00:49:09And it was a very authoritative, well orchestrated pass.
00:49:12James is not clear though because certainly Craig Lowndes has got pace at the moment.
00:49:16Now Courtney's on for the best result for him for the year.
00:49:19If he can stay there.
00:49:21But Lowndes is threatening.
00:49:22Lowndes is threatening and now they've both got a bit more fresh air than when they were a trio involving the battle with Will.
00:49:27So see what happens here.
00:49:29Lowndes is now within a car length.
00:49:31He made some ground there.
00:49:32Big time into the braking area at turn one.
00:49:33How about the gap that Mark Winterbottom's got on these guys.
00:49:34Five seconds, he's up the road.
00:49:35Lowndes, little look on the inside.
00:49:36Let's him know he's there.
00:49:37James will do everything and more.
00:49:52Lowndes almost drove straight into the back of Courtney then, there was nothing in that.
00:50:00I'll bet you that Craig thought he was going to hit him as he turned in then.
00:50:04it'll be deja vu well it was so close wasn't it he put his foot on the brake and he oh i'm gonna
00:50:09get him that was very very close so this is the spot lounge has got to get himself organized to
00:50:16get onto the straight and get down the inside at turn one if he wags the tail of the red bull
00:50:21holden that'll slow the exit it's got to be super straight it is courtney managed that carefully as
00:50:27well so it's just a little over three kilometers to run winter bottom's got 4.9 seconds
00:50:34courtney and lounge yet to resolve here comes craig they're both at the braking maximum in there and
00:50:41courtney hangs on can he turn it if it goes up high craig will sneak down on the inside now
00:50:47courtney has to cover when they get to five he sprint cars off turn one in second gear but he's
00:50:53got a body position this car slightly wide in the braking area and he does but lounge up the inside
00:50:58forces the issue courtney's wide lounge is sliding it goes to the valley courtney did a lounge to
00:51:06hold off lounge at the exit of turn one and they got him naughty naughty he's got to calm down
00:51:15he got a 15 point penalty yesterday craig lounge so i don't know that he can recover from this now i think
00:51:21i think he's gonna hold back now if that's possible but either way mark winterbottom
00:51:29goes marching towards his first race victory of the year and the first for him in more than a year
00:51:35they wanted to come back out on the road to redemption and they've done it today for performance
00:51:40racing fantastic what a great battle between these two guys courtney and lounge very very high quality
00:51:48stuff james courtney's best finish of the year he didn't have much to play with carwise but he
00:51:59he found a willing partner for the last lap in craig lounge great job mark winterbottom congratulations
00:52:05that's a terrific win personally for the team of course and for ford you watch this this is already
00:52:13unfolded by the time they get up here into turn five yesterday lounge at that spot went careering
00:52:20into the back of another hrt commodore but it was garth tander and that one was close to unraveling it
00:52:29all so winterbottom becomes just the second four driver to win in 2013 along with his teammate
00:52:36will davison who took out race eight in new zealand and that's the big breakthrough now for frosty
00:52:44isn't it after all those near misses earlier this season and all the talk about how long it's been
00:52:48between drinks jamie winkup finishes fifth fabian coulthard pushed up but ended up in seventh and
00:52:56davy reynolds inside the top ten chas mostard in 17th alex davison there in 20th played a different
00:53:04hand for dean fioria and russell ingle russell would finish in 26 and the gamble for scott mclaughlin to go
00:53:10out there and ask that kid in that car to do that many laps on a soft tire against this
00:53:16bunch was way too much well that's a great story for these guys we all saw it unfold yesterday it
00:53:25was all there in front of us and like i said before ford performance racing as it seemed put it on the
00:53:32table last night late last night it was a disastrous day yesterday there's no other way to describe it
00:53:39and to come back here to piece together the damage done to the cars and the fragility of their mindset
00:53:48is the way to bounce back
00:53:52his last win was at phillip island last year back in may so over a year now mark winterbottom has had
00:54:00the weight for what is now his 21st career win great job james courtney on the podium yesterday
00:54:09a step up today and craig lowndes made sure we were entertained at the end
00:54:21a big smile and good camaraderie between those guys and sportsmanship as well from the pole sitter
00:54:27to the breakthrough everybody goes through their tough times so they may be on the other side of
00:54:33the fence but they certainly know what it's like to go through a tough one and bounce back well done
00:54:37mark winterbottom yeah matty some bounce back for mark winterbottom frosty some wins are sweeter than
00:54:42others this has been pretty special you've waited 12 months but boy that must taste good yeah it's um
00:54:47it's been a tough year no doubt and uh we've led a lot of races so those last 10 laps i could just hear
00:54:52noises and i'm just like pleased to stay together so um obviously a bad day yesterday that was you
00:54:58know all the stuff that's gone on so um it's great we're on here hopefully davey can win the
00:55:02next one and uh we both go home happy now we know that a lot was said amongst the team last night
00:55:06there was a bit of the peace pipe passed around and what what really struck home for you last
00:55:10night of what was said what what made a difference um oh it's just made clear on how we can race you
00:55:15know there's um teammates are the worst to race and uh you don't want to bump them but then at the
00:55:20same time you can't get held up behind them and um you know the end result was was purely my fault
00:55:25so um you know we're now clear we can all go and race and um you know hopefully we can get all organ
00:55:30on the podium race hard and uh i'd be happy to see dave win it because um you know i've got one and
00:55:35he's off pole in the in the next one so um hope he brings it home frosty congratulations on a great
00:55:39win thanks mate enjoy that podium james courtney and craig lands boy what a jewel boys that was
00:55:45spectacular to watch those last few laps james yeah we didn't have the pace on the hard tires of the
00:55:49other boys and uh so we just got on the sauce as quick as we could and then it was uh conserving
00:55:54throughout the whole stint and i could see old mate lounsey coming up behind me and i thought it's
00:55:57about time i get out of here so i can stay on the podium so we got will and managed to just stay ahead
00:56:01of craig but uh you know it's such a awesome turnaround for everyone at hrt we've been slogging
00:56:07so hard and to get these rewards is uh you know it's priceless for all these boys so i can't wait
00:56:12to get home and celebrate with kaz and the kids good on you jc well done we can tell it's a huge
00:56:16lift here with the weight off the shoulders lounsey you took it to him as you do time and time again
00:56:19well done yeah thanks brett i think that's uh you know it was great pit stop for the boys and uh you
00:56:23know go onto the soft tire like james said our car was much better on that uh those soft ones so just
00:56:28had to sort of hunt him down and he had a great battle there with will uh he managed to sort of
00:56:32get by will which gave me an opportunity uh but it's good to see frosty up there good to see uh
00:56:37courtney and you know it's great to be back on the podium and nice to look forward to the next race
00:56:40this afternoon craig too yeah yeah hopefully start a bit further up in second not 10th so
00:56:45look see what happens the car is working really well so everyone at red bull it's uh yeah it's a
00:56:48treat awesome job mate well done enjoy the podium thanks brett i'm keen to have a chat with this young
00:56:53bloke scotty mcglock and we saw him out there battling around on soft tires for 30 odd laps mate
00:56:57and i want to talk to you about that but just firstly before i you i saw you get out of the car and you
00:57:02walked around and shook the hands of all you guys on your team even though it was i guess a crappy result
00:57:08and i think that's a sign of a future champion well done great style what was it like battling
00:57:12around there for 30 laps mate uh basically like i felt like i had no tires at all the end i just uh
00:57:18it was tough but you know that's what happens we had a i flat spotted a tire on the hard tires
00:57:23so we had to pit and uh put the softs on and you know sort of i try to look after him as much as
00:57:30i can but it's too much on them so uh yeah so so scottie so clearly then it wasn't a strategic
00:57:34option we got to gauge you had a problem with your first set of tires so it was a flat spot
00:57:38but you have got a read now a very good read on how far you think a soft tire can go what's the
00:57:43number what do you think oh it's definitely not 30 but um oh 20 25 i'd say i i think it can do a
00:57:50little bit more but probably 20 laps is the maximum man those last 10 laps were so hard so um if you're
00:57:58lap 20 you're battling around the last lap you're looking all right but yeah not 30 laps don't do that
00:58:03all right buddy good luck for the next one yeah thank you cheers he's earning his money this weekend
00:58:07came in here with a bit of a flu and now he's been asked to do the hardest job of the day and
00:58:11that just shows what uh what tire life is left so the championship picture looks like there's 227
00:58:17points is now the difference will davison moves back up into third and jason bright moves down to
00:58:23sixth james courtney has gained a couple of spots to move up to seventh after finishing on the podium
00:58:29which is where we can head right now with our birthday boy mark beretta the 2013 v8 supercar sky city
00:58:34triple crown darwin race 18 of our year would you please congratulate in first place for pepsi max
00:58:41crew fpr ford mark winterbottom in second place for holden racing team james courtney
00:58:51and in third place for red bull racing australia craig lounge
00:58:55representing the winning team pepsi max crew fbr ford is james small
00:59:04making the presentation of the third place trophy is brent felice
00:59:08the special event and sponsorship manager from one of our great sponsors cooper's brewery
00:59:15presenting the second place is tony mail the chief executive officer tourism northern territory
00:59:21making the presentation to our winning team is marcus gleiser from
00:59:30coats high group the executive general manager
00:59:36and presenting to first place is michael bridge chairman tourism northern territory and northern
00:59:41territory major events
00:59:46ladies and gentlemen the 2013 v8 supercars sky city triple crown darwin race 18 winners
00:59:54yesterday it was all holding up there today the blue oval boy mark winterbottom stands on the top
00:59:59step becomes the eighth different winner of season 2013 they'll hit the champagne we are going to take
01:00:05a break i've got crompa and scafie standing by to join me after this we'll run you through all the
01:00:10highlights and set the scene for race 19 which is still to come
01:00:22mark winterbottom a controlled performance we've been saying all weekend that despite the dramas that
01:00:27has been a super fast car well finally he's been able to show it off with a convincing victory by more
01:00:33than five seconds in the end we were talking very clearly and very openly about the disaster of a day
01:00:39that they had yesterday you had a very strong point of view on it it is not often scafie and neil
01:00:44that when you start a weekend in this sport from behind the eight ball that you can pull it back that
01:00:48quickly that is a huge bounce back certainly is i mean we were critical because we've seen
01:00:53poor pit stops we've seen them catch themselves out with our own teammates we've said they've had
01:00:57good car speed and how were they going to beat wink up go and put pressure on him wink up in that race
01:01:02was nowhere in comparison to fpr that is a sensational drive and it was done by good qualifying performance
01:01:10and great race craft they they drove and strategized themselves to the pointy end of this field
01:01:18and it was very good start here as we have a look at the race 18 highlights by mark winterbottom so
01:01:22from the minute he popped the clutch he looked like he was going to be in business there was a little bit
01:01:26of indecision with one or two of the maneuvers with james but you could probably also argue that it
01:01:30wasn't a bad idea to be a bit gun shy today based on all the dramas yesterday and he would have been
01:01:34carrying those bruises with him so one or two of them as always ending up off the road down at turn
01:01:39one they played a long game with jonathan webb and also fabian courtard and there's the decisive move
01:01:45down the inside for mark winterbottom into turn one on james courtney good to see hold and racing
01:01:49team getting back in amongst it will davison didn't quite have the pace of his teammate today but he also
01:01:54slicing down the inside of james courtney there's winkup and as you said mark pretty quiet
01:02:00by comparison which just speaks volumes about track position and qualifying that was a weird
01:02:05rub between bright and tander will davison down the inside of scott mclaughlin incidentally and
01:02:11this all happened late when we had focus in other areas but mclaughlin who was first onto those soft
01:02:16tires finished second last so he dropped all the way to 27th by running long on those softs super
01:02:22slow-mo action at turn five jonathan webb this time on scotty pie that looked a bit naughty didn't
01:02:27really looked like he was far enough up the inside of the car those things are all under review at the
01:02:31moment really relatively quiet though for race control lounge getting wink up there and uh this
01:02:37time slade getting prema and then it all kind of bunched up right at the very end put some energy
01:02:43into the back end of the race didn't it this was great this was great stuff so lounge down the inside
01:02:48of davison lounge was the one that was making ground we thought he was going to run into courtney right there
01:02:55on the lap prior to the actual offense because this last lap was pretty wild lounge bumps him
01:03:02they run out of turn one they come up through the roller coaster we think he's going to dive down the
01:03:07inside and then bang gets him we know he was penalized for that yesterday when he rented a tander
01:03:13that was very close a very good bit of driving by courtney not to get spun and as we said a fantastic
01:03:19bounce back and good camaraderie here this is really good sportsmanship between some of the best
01:03:24touring car drivers in the world and let's focus on james courtney for a second because a lot of
01:03:29the talk all weekend has been either about ford performance racing or red bull racing australia
01:03:33but james courtney two out of two podium efforts there he's really getting close to getting that
01:03:38race win and clearly the test that they had has turned things around and came into this weekend with
01:03:44just one podium to his credit for the 2013 championship season right now he's got three in total for the
01:03:49season as you said wynton clearly has worked quite well for them and i think a little bit of decompression
01:03:54time he went and spent some time with good racing buddies in the states he saw some other racing
01:03:58he's come back in a good frame of mind they've improved the car and you only need to make this
01:04:01much ground in the caper at the moment it makes a difference it's also contract time it does make
01:04:06a difference that helps exactly so i guess the question for race 19 is now how far can this
01:04:11ford performance racing fight back go well they're in the box seat for our last race of the day because
01:04:16david reynolds will start from pole position that's coming up a little later on this afternoon we're
01:04:20going to take a break when we come back more live motorsport right here on seven the touring car
01:04:25masters at hidden valley
01:04:45hey
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