HIGHS AND LOWS FOR TEAM 18 IN ADL500 PRACTICE

MEDIA RELEASE/Team 18 – Photos: Velocity Magazine

It has been a day of strong progress for Team 18 at the Adelaide 500 despite an incident for the DEWALT Racing Commodore in Practice 2.

The day was cut short for the DEWALT Racing car after suffering a suspected suspension component failure at Turn 7 with Scott Pye at the wheel. This caused a red flag with seven minutes remaining in the session.

The DEWALT Racing crew will concentrate its repair efforts on ensuring the car is ready for Qualifying and the first race of the 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship on Saturday.

Mark Winterbottom was fourth quickest in Friday practice after a strong day of progress for the IRWIN Racing Commodore at the Adelaide 500.

Practice 2 saw Winterbottom 10th as the team fine tuned their race setup for the weekend. 

However, Winterbottom’s 1:19.6055 on his final lap in Practice 3 saw him climb from 12th to fourth in the times.

The IRWIN Racing driver’s top ten practice positions mean he automatically progresses into a second reduced segment of Qualifying for Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday.

Qualifying will be held at 11:55am local time tomorrow before the Top Ten Shootout and the first of two 250km races of the Adelaide 500 at 4:20pm.

SEE ALL OF VELOCITY MAGAZINES ADL500 PHOTOS HERE

SEE ALL OF VELOCITY MAGAZINES ADL500 PHOTOS HERE

Mark Winterbottom – Driver, Team 18 #18 IRWIN Racing Holden Commodore ZB

“The goal was to get in the top ten in both practice sessions given this weekend’s qualifying format where we go straight through to Q2 tomorrow so overall I’m wrapped,” said Mark Winterbottom.

“We cut it very fine in Practice 2 in 10th ,which is as close as you want to get, but to then get fourth in the second session with a 1:19.6 is a great confidence booster for the team.

“We’ve made good progress today, the team are now focussed on Scott Pye’s car to fix that after he was unlucky with a component failure today, and I think he would have been up there as well given his earlier speed.

“We’re pumped to go racing tomorrow.”

Scott Pye – Driver, Team 18 #20 DEWALT Racing Holden Commdore ZB

“Unfortunately something on the front-right has failed but at a street circuit like this when something fails you pay a price,” said Scott Pye.

“The disappointing thing is it felt like the car speed was really good. We were competitive on a used tyre and I was excited to put some new tyres on it to see what we had.

“I’m lucky in a way that it happened at Turn 7 and not Turn 8 because it could have been a really shocking accident, but it was a shame to not be able to show the car’s true potential today.”

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