Mark Winterbottom has continued his recent run of fine form in the V8 Supercar Championship after setting the pace in practice for the season finale at Phillip Island.
The Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon driver set the fastest lap time of 1m 33.9659s with under two minutes remaining in the two and a half hour session as he headed Holden pairing Garth Tander and Todd Kelly.
With nothing to play for from a championship point of view, Winterbottom said he was focused on ending the season on high, giving the team the chance to head into the off-season in buoyant mood.
"It is a good start to the weekend, you can't get much better than setting the fastest time,” he said. “The track conditions here change quite a bit depending on which support category is on the track before us, especially when it is the historics as they can make it quite slippery. This is something we will have to keep our eye on for qualifying. If we can do the same lap time tomorrow we should be pretty close to the front.
“Richo and I can't progress any higher in the championship so the goals are to win the Pole award and finish one-two for the round so we can end the year on a high - setting our sights on next season being the one for us.”
Team-mate Steve Richards was eleventh fastest although his best lap time wasn't a true indication of his pace at this track as he experienced an off-circuit moment while on his fastest lap towards the closing stages of the long and hot session.
"Today was a pretty frustrating day,” he said. “We spent the session searching to find a good balance with our car set-up but a lot of the changes we made didn't seem to make any real impact.
“As a result of this, there was a lack of forward progress throughout practice. We didn't put new tyres on the car so once we bolt some on for qualifying I'm confident of moving up the order tomorrow.”
