IRWIN Racing’s Mark Winterbottom scored two top ten finishes on the final day of racing at the Pizza Hut Winton SuperSprint, while Nulon Racing’s Scott Pye recovered from an early drama to claw his way back from 22nd to 14th in the finale.

Winterbottom qualified 10th in Race 14 for what was Team 18’s 300th race in the Supercars Championship, and had a clean race to end up ninth at the chequered flag.

Pye started 19th and made up one position early in the race before he struck drama on Lap 13 with a mechanical failure which forced him to retire from the race.

The crew were in a race against time and successfully repaired the issue for the next race, just making it out to the grid before pit exit closed.

Pye quickly went about making amends and clawed his way back from 22nd to 14th in Race 15 and showed competitive pace throughout.

Winterbottom put in another strong performance coupled with a well executed pit stop from the crew to finish ninth.

In the Drivers’ Championship, Winterbottom sits 14th on 693 points with Pye in 18th on 521. Meanwhile, Team 18 improved to seventh on 1214 points.

Round 6 of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship heads to the Darwin Triple Crown for the Indigenous Round on 17-19 June.

RESULTS & QUOTES
Scott Pye, driver #20 Nulon Racing Holden ZB Commodore

Qualifying (Race 14): 19th (fastest lap: 1:19.4400)
Qualifying (Race 15): 22nd (fastest lap: 1:19.1191)
Race 14: DNF
Race 15: 14th (fastest lap: 1:20.9588)

“That was a tough weekend, started really well with the sixth yesterday but had a steering failure today which was disappointing.

“It was a tough one to swallow but we fought back, the guys did a great job to turn the car around for the next race. It was really tight to make it out because of where the mechanical failure was on the car made it difficult to get to, so we made it just in time before pit exit closed.

“The race wasn’t too bad, after a poor qualifying we moved forward to 14th so we moved up eight places.

“We’ll be back bigger and better next time in Darwin.”

Mark Winterbottom, driver #18 IRWIN Racing Holden ZB Commodore

Qualifying (Race 14): 10th (fastest lap: 1:18.9949)
Qualifying (Race 15): 8th (fastest lap: 1:18.6825)
Race 14: 9th (fastest lap: 1:21.2283)
Race 15: 9th (fastest lap:

“The car is straight and we had two top ten results in qualifying and two top ten results in the race, so we executed well.

“The goal now is to go back to the workshop, work on the cars and make them 100% reliable and fast before we go to Darwin next which is a good place for us.

“It’s a long hard battle and you can see today there are guys that can win at one track and struggle at another. It’s such a tough series at the moment but we’ll keep working to improve the car for the next one.”