Prodrive Racing (Australia) is lucky to have four straight cars after a terror outing in race three at Symmons Plains. In wet conditions the back half of the field found themselves in trouble with little visibility on the run down to turn four, resulting in a 13-car pile-up and a red flag. Narrowly escaping the carnage, the #6 Monster Energy Ford had its rear wing endplate replaced under the red flag while no other cars required attention. Jason Bright emphasised the importance of qualifying well in conditions experienced today, with the strong starting positions of all four PRA cars resulting in top-10 finishes. Bright and teammate Mark Winterbottom have confidence heading into tomorrow’s race, pleased with the strengths of their cars. Despite a stellar start to the race, a lock-up prior to the carnage on lap two saw Mostert fall down the field after an off-track excursion. Pleased with his qualifying efforts, Mostert will look to match, if not better his starting position tomorrow.
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 10th – 58.17s
Race 3: 7th
“We did one lap effectively so it was disappointing because I think we made good gains with the car. It’s a bit weird because you want to race and we really only did one lap and it was classified as a finish. To make up three spots in one lap was good but it kind of leaves you a bit deflated because we wanted to race.”Cameron Waters – #6 Monster Energy PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 13th – 58.24s
Race 3: 9th
“I had a really good start. With the accident I got hit by Fabian (Coulthard) at turn two and ran wide, and then coming through turn three Fabian and Rick (Kelly) were into each other and we all kind of lifted and braked and it all went haywire from there. I need to watch the vision but it all happened that quick that I just tried to avoid everything. Otherwise it was a very uneventful race really with only two laps.”
Chaz Mostert – #55 Supercheap Auto PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 2nd – 57.80s
Race 3: 5th
“I had a good start and I was pretty shocked with that. I kept trucking along and then I just locked a front, it was a pretty amateur mistake and I’m a bit disappointed for the team because it would have been an easy win because the race technically didn’t even start but then again if you did win it wouldn’t really feel like you did anyway. The circumstances weren’t great. I think we only had a two lap race so it just wasn’t what we really wanted. Overall I’m pretty happy with today’s efforts. To qualify second in the wet was pretty good; we’ll take the positives of the good start as well and leave the negatives behind. Some good points, up there in the championship but we still have work to do to find more pace in these cars.”
Jason Bright – #56 MEGA Bulk Fuels PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 8th – 58.03s
Race 3: 6th
“If there was ever a day that it counted for qualifying well and getting a good start that was it. We ticked both of those boxes and kept out of trouble and yeah it was a bit of shame because it would have been good to see how we could have raced. I feel like we’re in a pretty good position particularly in the wet so it’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t get to have much of a race but hopefully there’s a nice long race for tomorrow.”
Tim Edwards – Team Principal:
“Not a lot to report from today really. Very thankful that we escaped it with only a broken rear end plate and nothing more. It’s a credit to the crew and the drivers for getting the qualifying results that they did and starting the race so well. The cars looked good, all of them seemed to have some good speed but we’ll really get to test that out tomorrow.”
Prodrive Racing (Australia)’s Garry Jacobson has made ground in races two and three of the Symmons Plains Dunlop Super2 Series round despite being handed a 15 second penalty in race one. Hit with the penalty for spinning a car at turn four, Jacobson made his way to seventh position where he will start tomorrow’s final race. Josh Kean suffered through a number of unfortunate incidents in both races two and three alongside some strong pace from the #5 Wynns Ford. After starting in the top 10 and running strong in a red-flagged race, a battery fault at the restart resulted in a DNF for Kean. After making up ground in race three a tap on the inside at the hairpin saw Kean spin, pushing him out of the top 10 for a 12th place finish.Garry Jacobson – #1 McQuinn Electrical PRA Ford:
Race 2: 9th
Race 3: 7th
“We had really good car speed today. We weren’t able to move as far forward as I would have liked but there were a few things against us out there particularly with race one only being a few laps so it didn’t give us time to move forward as we would have liked. Obviously disappointed to receive the penalty but the rules are the rules. We still have one more race so we’ll make it count.”
Josh Kean – #5 Wynns Racing PRA Ford:
Race 2: DNF
Race 3: 12th
“The car was really good today. The car was able to move a long way forward but it was just frustrating with what happened out there in both of the sessions. We’ll bounce back tomorrow. We’re not in too bad a position so I’m confident we can move further forward.”
1) Shane van Gisbergen – Triple Eight
2) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
3) Craig Lowndes – Triple Eight
4) David Reynolds – Erebus Motorsport
5) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing
6) Jason Bright – MEGA Racing
7) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team
9) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing
1) Shane van Gisbergen – Triple Eight: 300
2) Fabian Coulthard – DJR Team Penske: 249
3) James Courtney – Walkinshaw Racing: 249
4) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing: 213
5) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing: 210
13) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team: 123
18) Jason Bright – MEGA Racing: 102
1) Triple Eight: 504
2) DJR Team Penske: 441
3) Walkinshaw Racing: 354
4) Prodrive Racing Australia: 333
