Winterbottom tops V8 Supercar quals

Another of last year’s top performers on the 4.47 kilometer street circuit was V8 Supercar young gun Mark Winterbottom and he maintained recent speed from the endurance rounds to record his third straight top qualifying position in the Championship Series.

Keen to go one better than his second place in 2006, Winterbottom qualified ahead of Holden’s Toll HSV Racing’s Garth Tander and James Courtney who piloted the Jeld-wen Falcon.

“It’s great to have three poles in a row. There’s no one thing that has improved across the past few races with the car we’ve just managed to maintain a solid package," said Winterbottom.

“I really pushed hard, even managed to bend the mirrors on the wall a couple of times just to put some solid consistent times together.

“While Bathurst was disappointing for Richo (team mate Steve Richards) the team and I, we’re putting that to the back of our minds and going for the win this weekend.

“I’ve never won a sprint round in my career so hopefully this can be the place to do it."

Support category drivers book-ended the entertainment bill today with Paul Kemal continuing to rule the roost in Coates Aussie Racing cars to claim two wins from two starts at the Lexmark Indy 300.

The VIP Petfood driver beat home regular V8 Supercar campaigner Paul Morris (Team Sirromet Wines) and Nick Lowe (Team BOC) who settled for third.

Race two of the Haymans Electrical V8 Utes saw New South Wales driver George Miedecke claim the win ahead of Ray Sidebottom and Ryal Harris.