Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Winton Round 5
May 21, 2016
Track: Winton Motor Raceway
Race: Woodstock Winton SuperSprint
Date: May 21st 2016
No. 12 MightyMite Ford – Fabian Coulthard
Qualifying 1 P 15 Fastest Lap 1:19.51
Race 1 P 17 Fastest Lap of race
No. 17 MightyMite Ford – Scott Pye
Qualifying 1 P 17 Fastest Lap 1:19.61
Race 1 P 12
Recap Race 1: The MightyMite Fords of Scott Pye and Fabian Coulthard have finished the first of two races at the Winton SuperSprint in the middle of the pack. After a very strong morning Practice session, which saw the cars in second and third positions, Qualifying delivered a result which meant the cars started on the eighth and ninth rows of the grid.
The race strategy was to run both cars deep into the race to gain position in the closing stages with fresher tyres. In the early laps the MightyMite Fords ran line astern, until Pye displaced his teammate at Turn 11 on Lap 6.
Front damage to Fabian’s No 12 Ford meant he was struggling for turn in grip but with no Safety Car he ran until Lap 28 of 40. Pye had pitted ten Laps earlier and made good progress to come home in twelfth place.
Coulthard picked off a lot of places with his fresh tyres, but coming from a long way back he crossed the line in seventeenth.
Sunday sees another qualifying session and the final 200km race at the Winton SuperSprint.
Fabian Coulthard Quote: "I made an error in Qualifying and with the times so close you just can’t afford to do it. I am not about excuses, I just made an error and it cost us."
"In the race you suffer a bit of a 'pinball' machine effect when you start mid pack. Someone got into me and then the guys in front checked up at Turn 8 and that was pretty much my day done. We managed to do reasonable times in the MightyMite Ford at the end on fresh tyres in a car that was a bit beaten up. There is clearly potential but we need to give ourselves a better chance tomorrow."
Scott Pye Quote: "The MightyMite Ford was a fast race car today but with our Qualifying position it made it more difficult. We did move up well after the Pit Stop but could not get past Bright in the latter stages and had to settle for P12. It is a very hard place to overtake so making some gains did show the car speed."
"From morning practice to Qualifying was a bit of a mystery. We did not make any real changes to the car so I guess the track conditions were changing. The race did come back to us and we need now to build on that and hopefully move forward."