News

Track: Olympic Park, Sydney   
Race:  Coates Hire Sydney 500
Date:  2nd December 2016
Race 1 – 75 laps – 250kms

Race 1 Recap: The penultimate race of the 2016 Virgin Australian Supercars Championship has seen the two DJR Team Penske Fords finish around their starting positions. Both Fabian Coulthard and Scott Pye avoided the push and shove of the early laps and settled into the mid pack before the first round of Pit Stops took place.

Pye pitted the WM Waste first while the Sharp Ford of Fabian Coulthard ran another eight laps longer. A split strategy for the cars saw them running in various Top 10 positions during the race however when all the 26 cars had made two stops, Fabian sat in fourteenth and Scott in sixteenth.

Coulthard moved the Sharp Ford up to eleventh over the closing laps, but could not catch Reynolds in tenth. Pye also made a few spots finishing in fourteenth. The soft tyre running on the street circuit is still proving a tough battle for the team. With another Qualifying and final race on Sunday, the drivers and engineers will work to try and improve the pace of both Fords.

No. 12 Sharp Ford - Fabian Coulthard
Qualifying:     P 11 (adjusted grid)     
Fastest Lap 1:27.44
Race 1:         P 11
Fabian Coulthard Quote: "We are not quite there yet. We just need to make the Sharp Ford a lot better at this track. We had a few good battles with people and ended up the first Ford home. I think we made some gains in the race set up and we have improved, but the others have as well."

No. 17 WM Waste Ford – Scott Pye
Qualifying:     P 18 (adjusted grid)     
Fastest Lap 1:27.69
Race 1:         P 14
Scott Pye Quote:  "I think fourteenth was the best we could have hoped for today in the WM Waste Ford. We are struggling with a lot of different things and hopefully we can make it a little bit better tomorrow. We didn't really battle with anyone today and I was not able to put any pressure on the cars in front of me."