Seton unlucky 13th in Queensland/Lowndes out after 39 laps
5/7/2004 1:49 (Press Release) -
Ford Performance Racing's (FPR) sixth V8 Supercar round effort at Queensland Raceway has netted the team one 13th place finish after today's 280 kilometre race.
CAT FPR Falcon driver Craig Lowndes was one of the round's early retirees, when on the 39th lap (out of 90) an engine failure once again sidelined the 30 year old triple Champion.
Ford Credit FPV Falcon driver Glenn Seton finished 13th today - a disappointing result given the fact that the 39 year old double Champion was in pursuit of a potential top six finish by the final stages of the race. The Ford Credit FPV Falcon was displaying strong and consistent car speed throughout the race until lap 70, when his alternator failed. Under close monitoring from FPR's race engineers, Seton continued strongly until lap 89 - the final lap of the race - when all of his on board electronic systems shut down. This forced Seton to nurse his car on a painfully slow and misfiring roll to the chequered flag, losing five positions from 8th to 13th.
While there is no doubt that this was another disappointing round for FPR, the blue oval team now has its sights firmly set on their first test days of the season next week at Victoria's Winton Raceway.
#5 Glenn Seton - "I was very happy with my drive today and we had good, strong and consistent pace as the race progressed. The car looked after its tyres very well, the engine was very strong and reliable - it is just sad that we had an alternator problem towards the end of the race that ran us out of battery power on the final lap. The team should be pleased with the work they have done to generate the pace we displayed after our poor qualifying performance. The warning alarms for the alternator went off with 20 laps to go and from that point the team was closely monitoring the telemetry and keeping me informed. I am sure that without the final Safety Car period we could have challenged for a top six finish in the closing laps of the race."
#6 Craig Lowndes - "We struggled all weekend to find a good set up here and I was really looking forward to this race as this enduro format best suits me. I was also hoping to find a bright light from the haze that we have been through this weekend in practice and qualifying. I was struggling to get through the pack in the opening stages and we made an adjustment during the first pit stop that created some more understeer in the car. Shortly after this stop the engine started to lose power and that was the end of my race."
FPR Chief Engineer, John Russell - "A strong drive by Glenn gained us a finish despite his electrical problem which manifested itself completely on the final lap of the race. Craig suffered an engine issue that thwarted a competitive and determined drive. We now look forward to our first test days ahead of our next race at Winton."
Today's 90 lap race was held in warm and sunny conditions in front of a record crowd of 39,185 race fans. (The total race weekend attendance set a new record of 66,507). The race was won by Ford Championship leader Marcos Ambrose ahead of Holden drivers Steven Richards and Jason Bright.
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