Team 18 will work tonight to repair Mark Winterbottom’s DEWALT Camaro after he was taken out in Race 5, while Scott Pye finished 20th in the penultimate race of the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint.
Starting fifth, Winterbottom made a great start to move up three positions by Turn 2. However, three corners later he was crashed out of the race by Golding at Turn 5, making severe contact with the concrete wall on the outside of the corner.
Pye made a clean start to the race in the #20 Resimax Group Chevrolet, sitting 15th before the pit window opened. However, his race came unstuck when a wheel nut jammed during the pit stop.
The team are assessing the damage on the #18 DEWALT Racing Supercar and will work to get it back out for Race 6 on Sunday, when Pye and Winterbottom will start 10th and 11th.
Team 18 are back in action tomorrow for Race 6 of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship at 10:25am AEST.
RESULTS & QUOTES
Scott Pye, driver #20 Resimax Group Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Race 5: 20th
“We managed to work our way through a few of the incidents on the first couple of laps, so we were on for a solid race.
“We came in for our pit stop and unfortunately the wheel nut jammed up, so we lost some time there. We ended up P20 which is disappointing, but we’ll investigate what happened today and focus on the final race tomorrow.
“We’re in a good spot from P10 in the final race, so hopefully we can stay out of trouble and salvage a decent result from the weekend for the team.”
Mark Winterbottom, driver #18 DEWALT Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Race 5: DNF
“We made a great start today, stayed on the inside and carved up a few positions through Turn 1 and 2.
“We got sent in the wall pretty hard after that.
“Feel for the team after that one, it could have been an easy podium for us today as we had good speed early on.”
“The team will get to work on it tonight and hopefully we can be back out there fighting strong for the final race tomorrow.”