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Friday, 7th March 2008

HRT man leads the way in Sydney.

Mark Skaife's affinity with Eastern Creek Raceway continued in the best way possible as he posted the quickest time in testing ahead of the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship season.

The Toll Holden Racing Team man, who has won at Eastern Creek more times than anyone else, set the pace in Friday practice ahead of FPR driver Mark Winterbottom with the second HRT Holden of Garth Tander slipping into third.

Skaife goes into the weekend with an amazing streak of seven front row starts at the Sydney circuit in the last seven rounds held there and has never qualified outside the top ten.

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“I don't think it's all that different to any other place that we go but it's just been a great place for me over the years,” he said. “It's a place you've got to work really hard at but it's a place that rewards you really well.”

For Winterbottom his result today, albeit in practice, came after a week of controversy amongst the Ford camp after a series of incidents in Adelaide that led to a truce being called during the week.

Winterbottom claimed he was unfairly taken out by Craig Lowndes in Adelaide which began a heavy media debate during the week. But he claims to have moved on.

"The Clipsal thing has dragged on quite a bit and as drivers we're over it, the media keeps talking about it but we're just focusing on racing,” he said. “I thought we'd struggle here. Even into the session, I thought we didn't look too good but then you bounce up to P2! It really helps your mental preparation; it's a real confidence boost.”

For Tander it was a timely return for the current series champion who was strong in Adelaide but had the momentum taken away from him due to issues out of his control.

“I'm happy,” he said. “It's the first press conference I've been to this year so we must be doing alright. It took a while to know what the car liked and it what it didn't like.
“I'm pretty comfortable with what we achieved today; it's been a good fight-back from the team after the lows of Clipsal.”

Young gun Lee Holdsworth, second in Adelaide to Jamie Whincup, was up with the front-runners finishing fourth in practice. Whincup finished sixth and his team-mate Lowndes seventh today.

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