FPR FINISHES OPENING DARWIN RACE OUTSIDE THE TOP TEN
25/5/2004 19:50 (Press Release) -
Ford Performance Racing (FPR) drivers Craig Lowndes and Glenn
Seton endured a tough opening race in Australia's top end today, finishing 12th
and 18th in the first of three V8 Supercar races being held at Darwin's Hidden
Valley Raceway.
Starting from 11th on the grid, Lowndes powered his CAT FPR Falcon into the
first turn strongly but found himself on the outside in the battle for
positions through the corner. This cost the 29 year old three positions,
beginning a race long battle with Mark Winterbottom (Ford) and Greg Murphy
(Holden) in to finish the short 17 lap race in 12th place.
Seton gained a position at the start, but shortly into the opening lap Holden
driver Paul Weel made an inside passing move that caused an impact with the
Ford Credit FPV Falcon, dropping Seton back to 20th. A race long battle in
heavy traffic saw the double Champion finish the race in 18th position.
The first Darwin V8 Supercar race of the season was won by Ford driver Russell
Ingall with Holden driver Todd Kelly second and Ford series leader Marcos
Ambrose third.
Today's race was held in fine and hot conditions and represented a small taste
of the hard work ahead in the two 35 lap races tomorrow, scheduled at 11:45am
and 2:30pm (local time).
#6 Craig Lowndes- "I tried to go around the outside at turn one after getting a
great start, but I got pushed a little wide and got caught in the marbles. It
was a good clean race from my end, I was chasing Winterbottom with Murphy
attacking me throughout. The car is good handling wise, but we are still
lacking horsepower."
#5 Glenn Seton -"It was a pretty tough race - I struggled with front end grip
throughout. Paul Weel came into the hairpin too hot and ran wide, taking me
with him and losing some time. We will be working on a better set up for
tomorrow."
FPR Chief Engineer John Russell - "A relatively uneventful race for us and
because of this we have two healthy cars at the end of it. Both drivers did a
good job today, Craig and Glenn didn't have the car speed that they needed.
We'll be working towards two better races tomorrow."
Release Date: 22/05/2004
Ford Performance Racing
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