Photo: Ford Performance Racing

Winterbottom on pole at ‘the Mountain’

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Mark Winterbottom blasted to pole position for the Bathurst 1000km, and will start ahead of the two TeamVodafone Holden Commodores, meaning a Ford and Holden front row.

The Ford Performance Racing driver set a 2:07.538 in cool conditions at the circuit in the top ten shootout, and sets himself up at the front of the grid for the famous touring car event.

Former Ford, now Holden squad TeamVodafone repeated their results from the Friday qualifying session to secure second and third on the grid, with four-time Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes again out qualifying his team-mate Jamie Whincup.

Lowndes showed the true pace of the Commodore at the mountain, with the Triple Eight built car breaking the circuit lap record in practice on Friday, setting a 2:06.801.

V8 Supercars Australia championship leader James Courtney put his Jim Beam Racing Ford Falcon in seventh place on the grid. Between him and rival Whincup are three more Holden’s – Fujitsu Racing’s Lee Holdsworth, who qualified an impressive fourth after going fastest in the Saturday morning practice session, and the two HRT cars of Garth Tander and Will Davison.

Jason Bright, who had set pole overnight, was unable to replicate his 2:07.000 from yesterday, and was almost 1.4 seconds slower than that to put his Brad Jones Racing car in eighth place on the grid.

BJR team-mate Jason Richards (sharing with Andrew Jones), who qualified last after missing qualifying due to wrecking his Commodore in practice, managed to get out in the morning practice session after the team spent all night rebuilding the car. Richards was seventh fastest in the session.

Pole sitter Mark Winterbottom, on pole for only the second time at a race FPR is yet to win is now looking ahead to the race.

“It was quite tough there going out – three Ford’s in the top ten – a lot of fans have been coming out worried about the amount of Holden’s in the top ten, so a bit of pressure and a bit riding on our soldiers – but soother their minds a bit tonight,” said Winterbottom.

“Our race pace is quite strong, we’ve focussed really hard on that. I guess in the past when we’ve come here, we tried to put the car on pole which we had but then Sunday failed in the race – so this time we’ve come here with a new focus, and we’re really focussed on the race set-up so to have pole position is a bit of an odd feeling.”