Starting today's 120km race in Darwin on soft tyres was not the popular choice but Team BOC's Jason Bright says it was the right decision despite some subsequent bad luck.
The hectic first lap saw Bright sustain a bent exhaust pipe as he charged through those on the slower hard compound tyre but he persevered to reach fifth place by lap ten.
The damage took its toll at the three-quarter mark, however, with Bright unable to defend against Tim Slade. He spun trying to make the corner and dropped down to P13 by the chequered flag.
Qualifying for tomorrow's 200km race starts at 12.40pm.
Jason Bright
Team BOC
"Our pace was very good and I'm very happy with our tyre life. If we'd qualified better we could have run with the top five but I just couldn't get a lap on my second set of tyres in qualifying today.
"I'd still stick with the same strategy. The safety car on lap five wasn't what we needed because it meant that some of the gain we got from starting on the soft rubber disappeared. I definitely think the strategy was still better though. I don't know that we would have been able to work our way up to fifth without doing something different.
"Throughout the race our exhaust was all bent over so I was a sitting duck every time someone was behind me and I couldn't make any ground on the straight. My guess is that it happened on the first lap.
"That meant when Slade latched onto the back of me, while I was trying to get past Tander, I couldn't defend. I thought I had shut the door but he went down the outside and I must have had a cut tyre because it span on the exit. Then I managed to get the pit lane limiter so when I went to start off I stalled. I lost another two or three spots just in that little sequence."
2012 Skycity Triple Crown-V8Supercar Championship Race 12&13
HIDDEN VALLEY RACEWAY
Race 12 Qualifying
01 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Ford, 1:08.5587
02 Will Davison, Trading Post FPR Ford, +0.0425
03 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team+0.0938
04 Jamie Whincup, TeamVodafone, +0.1021
05 Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, +0.1158
06 Tim Slade, Lucky 7, +0.2215
07 Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing, +0.3014
08 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, +0.4406
09 Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing, +0.4447
10 Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, +0.4471
12 Jason Bright, Team BOC, +0.5980
2012 Skycity Triple Crown-V8Supercar Championship Race 12&13
HIDDEN VALLEY RACEWAY
Race 12
01 Jamie Whincup, TeamVodafone
02 Will Davison, Trading Post FPR Ford
03 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Ford
04 Criag Lowndes, TeamVodafone
05 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team
06 Tim Slade, Lucky 7
07 Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing
08 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team
09 Jonathon Webb, Tekno Motorsport
10 Lee Holdsworth, Irwin Racing
13 Jason Bright, Team BOC
