Mark Winterbottom hopes that his win in Race 22 at Symmons Plains Raceway is enough to start putting the heat of faltering title leaders James Courtney and Jamie Whincup.
After victory in today’s race in Tasmania, Winterbottom now sits 200 points adrift of title leader James Courtney, and with 600 available, he still has every chance of fighting for the championship.
Courtney and Whincup finished 12th and 15th after the pair endured a drive through penalty and insufficient fuel respectively.
Winterbottom, driver of the #5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, said that he is looking forward to putting more pressure on his rivals at Sandown’s event this coming weekend.
“I think we’ll go pretty well there,” he said.
“Last year we had a some engine issues. I was the fastest in the first sector and 28th in the second sector down the back shoot! I think we’re in better shape this year.
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“I think we’ll go OK. The track is one of Campbell (Little’s) favourites for set-ups, but who knows what the weather is like. It supposed to be summer!
“Hopefully, we’ll put some more pressure on the other guys and get close enough for them to be thinking about us.”
Winterbottom started from pole position at Symmons today and said that today’s win was “great.”
“It was a hard fought win,” he said.
“You don’t know how long the softs were going to last, there was drizzle on the window, there was HRT car blow up and put oil everywhere. There were lots going on, so it was a great victory.”
CLICK HERE for report and results from today’s race.
