Photo: PRA

Mark Winterbottom bounces back from drama to score key points and podium

By

Prodrive Racing Australia failed to win their third consecutive Bathurst 1000, but take solace in having scored second place for Mark Winterbottom and Steve Owen after an electrical problem looked set to end their charge earlier in the race, and leaves Winterbottom and PRA on target for their first drivers’ title.

Winterbottom had started in 14th position, with Steve Owen starting the car which at one point was running 26th and last in the race as they went off strategy early on.

Good strategy, a daring early switch to slicks after the rain subsided and lightning pace late in the race saw them score a well earned second positon, though the Ford pair had nothing on race winners Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards.

“It was an interesting day,” said Winterbottom. “Those last 40 laps were like qualifiers, I’m stuffed, I put everything I could put in and just couldn’t catch Craig, he was too quick. We’ll go to bed happy knowing we both put everything into it, we did everything we could.”

A podium result seemed unthinkable when after a quarter of the way through the race, the championship leader was given a mechanical black flag for an electrical problem which had seen his dashboard cut-out and the car’s brake lights forced on.

“The team did an amazing job. When I hopped out of it, it was broken, and when I hopped back in it was fixed, so that was pretty cool. Then all the car #6 guys were helping out too, so a special day.”

After the final safety car, Winterbottom was running fifth but was able to capitalise on a charge by Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard on Prodrive team-mate David Reynolds at Hell Corner, which allowed him to sneak past into second position.

“I knew if we had a lucky run we’d get back up, and thankfully we did. With 20 laps to go we were fifth, and then they had the big moment at Turn 1 and we were second.”

Winterbottom now leads Lowndes by 399 points heading to the next round of the championship at Surfers Paradise, the last of the three endurance rounds of the season.