“When you start down, there's really no excuse," 'Frosty' insisted, "I tried too hard and made a mistake. I lost three or fourth tenths at the start and at turn one. But we've started on the front row the last three years and we take a lot of pride in that.”
FPR team-mate Steven Richards, however, said the front row position was no assurance of success on Sunday.
“To tell the truth, pole position means absolutely nothing," he claimed, "I've been fortunate enough to win this race from 15th....”
Third place went to the Jeld-Wen Ford of Courtney and Besnard after the SBR regular hauled the car up the order in the Shoot-out.
“There's two ways that you can approach the Shoot-out," Courtney claimed, "You can cruise around at eight-tenths and put in a safe lap, or you can take your family jewels, hang them on the off the rear vision mirror and have a go… that's the option I went for!
“The car was great across the top of the Mountain and down the other side, I just couldn't get the most out of it in the first a last corners. But it's a good, comfortable car to drive, and we won't need to do much to it tonight.”
Fourth was claimed by Paul Dumbrell, who will now team with Rick Kelly for Sunday's race after the former champion's #15 entry was trashed in a might impact with co-driver Paul Radisich at the wheel.
The team was not able to repair the car in time for the Shoot-out but officials granted Kelly special dispensation to move to the HSV Dealer Team's second car to partner Dumbrell when it became clear that scheduled co-driver David Reynolds would also not be fit enough to race. The youngster has been on a drip all weekend with a viral infection.
“As I have said all weekend, that car is really good!" Dumbrell pointed out, "It is really secure and it is actually quite easy to drive. Looking at the lap after the top ten, it looked how it felt, we weren't ragged and it looked like an ideal lap.
