Winterbottom ninth in chaotic Race 4 in Melbourne

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Team 18 drivers Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye were classified ninth and 18th respectively in a chaotic Race 4 of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint, in support of the Australian Grand Prix.

Starting fifth, Winterbottom’s race was thrown into chaos as soon as Turn 1, when he was forced off the road in an incident at Turn 1 and dropped all the way to the back of the pack.

A safety car was called to clean up the incident at Turn 1, as Winterbottom pitted under safety car to swap from the hard tyres to the super soft. 

The race resumed on Lap 4, as Pye pitted a lap later to swap to the super softs, with Winterbottom taking two tyres in a later stop after the race was earlier declared wet which removed the requirement to change four tyres in the compulsory pit stop.

Another incident on Lap 7 brought out the safety car for a second time, while the race finished under time certain conditions a lap later.

Winterbottom and Pye crossed the line in 11th and 20th respectively, before Courtney and Golding received post-race penalties, which promoted them to ninth and 18th respectively.

Team 18 returns to action tomorrow for Qualifying for Race 5 and 6 from 9:05am, before Race 5 of the championship on at 5:30pm AEDT.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Mark Winterbottom, driver #18 DEWALT Racing Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Race 4: 9th

“That start was ridiculous, to be honest. Like the start with a flag, I didn’t think I’d see that again, not even in go karts.

“It was a bit of a shambles, Courtney hit waters and hit Reynolds and there was nowhere to go for me at Turn 1. I think if we just got through Turn 1 we’d finish on the podium in that one.

“Thankfully the car is straight, but we missed an opportunity there. It was unavoidable but at least we got back to ninth from the back. The guys did a great job with strategy. That was really good, but when you’re fifth you don’t wanna finish any further back.

“We’ve got two more days and I think we’re making gains. I think we’re pretty unlucky at the moment, so hopefully it turns a bit and we can maximise when we qualify well.”

Scott Pye, driver #20 Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Race 4: 18th

“We didn’t really do a race. Unfortunately, the categories before us had red flags and it pushed our session back and they just shortened the race to the point where it was a total lottery.

“Frustrating day for us. Unfortunately we started hard, so we had to do a four tyre stop when others only had to do two. If you started on the soft tyre, they declared it wet when it didn’t rain again, so you only had to change two tires.

“We want to put on a better show than that. Hopefully we get a bit little bit lucky with the times across the weekend and we can get full races in.”