REYNOLDS REDEEMS AS GC TILT FAILS TO SHINE FPR – GOLD COAST 600 RACE 2 WRAP Ford Performance Racing’s David Reynolds made up for crashing out of the opening race of the Gold Coast 600 by finishing sixth with co-driver Dean Canto in Sunday’s finale on Surfers Paradise. A strong start from Canto positioned the pair in the top four and Reynolds did what he could to bring his factory Ford home as he struggled for pace late on. While not the repeat win the pair had hoped for it was the high point of a tough day for the team. Mark Winterbottom and Steve Owen looked to finish well inside the top 10 after the podium controversy that marred Saturday only for Winterbottom to be spun on the final corner of the final lap. Contact from Russell Ingall dropped him from eighth to 14th at the flag and the frustrating end to the race was compounded by his car stopping after the chequered flag. Team-mate Chaz Mostert pushed him back to the pits but only after enduring a similarly tough day as he finished 18th despite again coming from a lap down to be a contender. Braking issues hampered both he and co-driver Paul Morris all day and the late safety car he required to make his strategy work never came. Stable-mates Jack Perkins and Cameron Waters were 15th after starting 19th and the pair did well to stay away from much of the drama in the mid-field. Waters was again quick and consistent and he and Perkins used quick pit stops to move up the field before their pace faded slightly late in the race. DRIVERS’ VIEW Mark Winterbottom & Steve Owen - #5 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: 14th Winterbottom: “We just didn’t have the speed this weekend. There is no hiding behind it. It was hard to drive and we had to hustle to finish eighth. The race went as it did. I had an engine issue near the end but that’s not what caused me to drop back. I was spun when Russell Ingall turned me around at the last corner. We raced fairly for 40 laps so I don’t know if it was intentional but it just finished me off. We should’ve been eighth with a car that was probably mid-grid at best. We have to dig deep and regain our speed as we were too far off this weekend.” Chaz Mostert & Paul Morris - #6 Pepsi Max FPR Ford: 18th Mostert: “We had a really average day today. We went a lap down early due to something being wrong with the balance of the car. Our brake bias was a long way from where it usually is so we will look into that. In my stint we started from the back and took a gamble to save a set of tyres for the end. I lost data, locked a tyre and had to pit as there was no way it was doing another 10 laps. We put the good set on with 28 to go and that put us back and we didn’t get the safety car we needed. 18th is the last place I thought we’d finish. We finished on the lead lap with a straight car, we were second in the Enduro Cup and won at Bathurst so hopefully next year we can improve again. I just want to head home now, have some time off, relive all the big moments of the last few weeks which have been a blur. I’ll freshen up before Phillip Island and I want that fifth in the points.” David Reynolds & Dean Canto - #55 The Bottle-O FPR Ford: 6th Reynolds: “Today was a better day and one of the better ones from the last four or five events. To be sixth is not too bad but we would’ve been much happier on the podium. All my team-mates struggled a bit today and to be the best of the lot was our highlight and sixth was okay. If we had more consistency we would’ve been further up. Dean did a great start, was quick and brought it home cleanly. The Enduro Cup got away from us. Sandown we were really fast and I spun the wheels in a pit stop and got a penalty. Bathurst we were basically leading from last and the alternator failed. We keep having small mishaps which meant we didn’t get what we should’ve from this campaign. I was trying too hard yesterday to make up for our lack of outright speed. We need to work out how we are achieving our speed, especially given the tyre situation.” Jack Perkins & Cameron Waters - #18 JELD-WEN FPR Ford: 15th Perkins: “It is pretty disappointing to finish back in 15th when we were in a good position today. We kept getting belted and bashed around and the car isn’t very straight after this weekend. Cam has been strong throughout the enduros and the crew have performed well and I really think we deserved better overall.” Tim Edwards – Team Principal: “It was a frustrating day again today but largely because we just didn’t perform at the level we needed to. We were chasing the ideal set-up all day and while we qualified stronger, had strong strategies and pit stops – we just didn’t have enough in our on track package to make things easy for the drivers. Sixth today for the #55 crew was a credit to them after their big night fixing the chassis but we’ll be glad to see the back of a tough weekend at a track where we’ve had a lot of success.”
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 09:22:27 +0000
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