Winterbottom completes Ford practice double

It was Mark Winterbottom’s turn to lead the way for Prodrive in a dry second practice session at Symmons Plains.

The Ford driver recorded a best of 51.40s with two minutes remaining after being one of several to opt for pre-marked soft tyres in his final run.

“The car felt really good,” said Winterbottom

“It’s nice to do laps in the dry because in the wet it’s so sketchy. So to have a trouble free session is clearly good for the team.

THE FINAL RACE OF THE 2023 REPCO SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST STREET CIRCUITS.
GO ALL IN AT THE VAILO ADELAIDE 500, CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS

“The wet sessions are about chasing traction. In that second session we switched the car back to our base set-up and were really were on the money.

“It’s nice to then adjust on the car and actually have it respond. Even the changes that didn’t work, we simply went the other way and it responded in the right way.”

Will Davison also used soft tyres to draw within 0.05s of Winterbottom with his final lap to end up second.

Craig Lowndes had endured several spins during the 60 minutes before jumping into the top three, ending up as the quickest hard tyre runner in the process.

Garth Tander, Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds, Shane van Gisbergen, James Courtney, Lee Holdsworth and Andre Heimgartner completed the top 10.

Although the track was dry throughout, oil left at Turn 4 from an earlier support category session made for tricky conditions.

The oil-dry caught out several drivers including Jason Bright, Lee Holdsworth and Lowndes, who spun three times at the same corner.

A mistake from Bright at Turn 6 that saw the Team BOC Holden nudge into the tyre wall was however the only cause of a red flag, coming with a quarter of the session left.

A third and final 15 minute practice session will be run tomorrow morning ahead of qualifying.

PRACTICE 2

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG/X	0:51.3998	0:00.0542
2	Will Davison	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG	0:51.4540	0:00.1428
3	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.5426	0:00.1551
4	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.5549	0:00.1626
5	F.Coulthard/L.Youlden	Freightliner Racing	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.5624	0:00.1864
6	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team	Ford Falcon FG/X	0:51.5862	0:00.2245
7	Shane Van Gisbergen	Team Darrell Lea STIX	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.6243	0:00.2982
8	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.6980	0:00.3213
9	Lee Holdsworth	Walkinshaw Racing	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.7211	0:00.3407
10	Andre Heimgartner	Super Black Racing	Ford Falcon FG/X	0:51.7405	0:00.3659
11	Chaz Mostert	Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG/X	0:51.7657	0:00.3664
12	Scott McLaughlin	Wilson Security Racing GRM	Volvo S60	0:51.7662	0:00.4253
13	Nick Percat	Repair Management Aust Racing	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.8251	0:00.5308
14	D.Wood/M.Jones	GB Galvanizing Racing	Holden Commodore VF	0:51.9306	0:00.5965
15	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing GRM	Volvo S60	0:51.9963	0:00.6802
16	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.0800	0:00.8472
17	Jason Bright	Team BOC	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.2470	0:00.8799
18	James Moffat	Nissan Mororsport	Nissan Altima	0:52.2797	0:00.8838
19	Tim Blanchard	Team Cooldrive	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.2836	0:00.9183
20	Scott Pye	DJR Team Penske	Ford Falcon FG/X	0:52.3181	0:00.9492
21	Rick Kelly	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan Altima	0:52.3490	0:01.0171
22	Todd Kelly	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan Altima	0:52.4169	0:01.0678
23	Tim Slade	Supercheap Auto Racing	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.4676	0:01.0733
24	Ashley Walsh	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG	0:52.4731	0:01.3981
25	Michael Caruso	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan Altima	0:52.7979	0:00.0542