THEY impressed in qualifying, but now Prodrive Racing is chasing even better results in the top 10 shootout.
Prodrive qualified all four of its cars for Saturday afternoon’s top 10 shootout, an effort team principal Tim Edwards was delighted with.
“I’m very proud of the entire team. To get one car in the shootout takes a lot of work, but to put all four in is pretty special,” he said.
“We’ve been pretty strong throughout the weekend, and having four cars going for pole should be advantageous.”
Chaz Mostert clocked a 2:04.53 lap to qualify third fastest for the shootout.
He felt he could have gone quicker as well.
“The car’s been pretty good since we rolled off the truck. We had a few issues in practice with some braking stuff, but it’s good to be on top of that now,” he said.
“As the fuel load kind of went off (in qualifying) we kind of lost our balance a bit. But overall, to be up here is always great. To be in the top 10, it’s one of the best sessions of the year, to have the track to yourself.”
Cam Waters was not far off Mostert’s mark as he qualified fourth quickest with a 2:04.59.
He will be chasing his second consecutive pole position after his co-driver Richie Stanaway got to start from number one on the grid at Sandown.
“Qualifying went to plan, we just tried to get quicker each time,” he said.
“I went a lot quicker on my last lap, which would’ve put me into second, but the red flag came out. It was unfortunate, but the main thing was getting into the shootout which we’ve achieved.”
Mark Winterbottom’s best qualifying lap of 2:04.78 will see him as the fifth driver on track in the shootout.
He knows there is room to improve and will be pushing hard in the one-lap flyer.
“I knew we would get into the shootout as the car was good enough for the top 10, but I still need to get things to where I am comfortable in the race,” he said.
“There are some areas where we can tidy it up, but when you have so many days of practice you can be a bit adventurous. Though Sunday is coming closer so you’ve got to nail down what you want. But we’re in the top five and in the shootout … so we’ll tidy the car up and go for pole.”
Jason Bright, who arrived at Bathurst with an average qualifying position of 17th, took position nine in the shootout.
He clocked a 2:05.08.
“I was happy with my first run, felt there was plenty of time left to come and we slightly improved,” he said.
“The track went off a little on my last two runs and I speared off at The Chase twice so we did just scrape in. But we are better than that by a couple of tenths which would put us right on the back of our team-mates.”
