The roar of V8 Supercars has returned to Australia’s Northern Territory with today’s two hours of opening practice held in warm and overcast conditions.
Ford Performance Racing (FPR) has enjoyed a top three start to the Darwin round, with Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon racer Mark Winterbottom setting today’s third fastest lap time of 1:09.59s. Castrol FPR Falcon driver Steve Richards was 7th fastest today, fractionally missing a place in the top five with his best lap time of 1:10.00s.
Winterbottom was one of only six drivers to set lap times within the one minute and nine second bracket today. The Hidden Valley circuit’s early lack of grip due to a combination of morning rain and the fact that this was the first V8 Supercar session of the weekend, made it a challenge to find the optimum car set-up. Both Richards and Winterbottom set their fastest laps of practice during the final seven minutes of the session, displaying significant gains in car speed compared to their early practice pace.
Mark Skaife topped today’s timesheets (1:09.26s), his best lap just under 3/10ths of a second ahead of Rick Kelly with Winterbottom heading off rivals Russell Ingall, Todd Kelly and Garth Tander.
Practice was interrupted by a number of red flag stoppages, the most spectacular of which being a roll-over by Ford driver James Courtney during the first half hour. Courtney escaped injury in the accident.
FPR returns to Hidden Valley Raceway for qualifying at 12:00pm EST ahead of the weekend’s first of three races starting at 4:05pm EST.
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